GENEVA, July 14: Barcelona was fined 500,000 euros ($560,000) by UEFA on Friday and Manchester United must pay 300,000 euros ($336,000) in the last round of financial monitoring using Financial Fair Play rules that have since been replaced.
Barcelona was punished for wrongly reporting profits from “disposal of intangible assets” that should not have been accounted for as income according to FFP rules, UEFA said in a statement. UEFA did not specify the asset that was sold.
Man United did not meet its target to approach break-even on football-related business that includes player transfers, wages and social taxes for FFP assessment. The former European champions each earned tens of millions of euros (dollars) in UEFA prize money last season.
United published a statement citing the different way to assess post-pandemic finances for the hundreds of clubs who qualify for European competitions and then are scrutinized by UEFA-appointed investigators.
A group of storied clubs – including AC Milan, Inter Milan and Paris Saint-Germain – who were fined by UEFA last September all met their stricter financial targets for last season. They will continue to be monitored for compliance over the next year.
İstanbul Başakşehir did not meet its targets and was fined 400,000 euros ($448,000).
Two clubs failing to meet break-even targets in new cases were new Belgian champion Royal Antwerp and Trabzonspor. Each must pay 300,000 euros ($336,000) now with conditional fines of up to 1.7 million euros ($1.91 million) more due if subsequent targets are missed.
Anderlecht was fined 100,000 euros ($112,000) as a previously conditional financial penalty was activated. (AP)
