Barcelona fined €500,000 by UEFA under FFP

Barcelona were informed on Friday that they were being fined by UEFA for breaking the financial fair play regulations in place between 2019-2022.

The La Liga champions will be forced to pay a small fee of €500,000 for “wrongly reporting … profits on disposal of intangible assets (other than player transfers) which are not a relevant income under the regulations”.

UEFA failed to disclose which asset had been misreported by the Barcelona board, resulting in this fine.

Barca was the only Spanish team fined in what was the last audit under the old 2018 Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play agreement.

It has been revealed by Mundo Deportivo that Barca plans to appeal the decision. Stating that they feel the fine is disproportionate to the offence, and La Liga accepted the profits.

Manchester United were also fined, being ordered to pay €300,000 for a ‘minor’ breach.

FFP was introduced back in 2009 as a way of trying to secure the long-term futures of football clubs by encouraging teams to spend within their means.

AC Milan, Besiktas, Inter Milan, Marseille, Monaco, Paris St-Germain and Roma were all found to be within the FFP rules, but UEFA would continue to monitor their situation. However, Lille has now been removed from the watch list after being the criteria.

AC Milan, Inter Milan and Paris Saint-Germain were all fined by UEFA back in September.

Financial issues are still a work in progress for Barcelona

It won’t come as a surprise to anyone to hear that Barca is trying to work their way back from the brink of financial collapse.

During a report back in 2021, the Catalan club’s financial deterioration was blamed on unsustainable signings between 2016-2020.

Between those dates, Barca’s payroll ballooned by 61% with the club signings players they simply could not afford.

Fast-forward to 2023 and Barca are still looking to recover its financial situation. Reports indicate that the club is looking to trim some of its wage budgets this year while still remaining competitive on the field.

That’s something that Xavi was able to achieve last year by winning La Liga.