Fine and big reprieve on PSG for non-respect of financial fair play – CulturePSG.com

UEFA has just communicated the list of eight clubs which have not respected Financial Fair Play in recent years and PSG is the most sanctioned: it inherits 65M€ in fines, including 10M€ to be paid immediately. The rest is linked to “whether or not the objectives set out in their respective settlement agreements are achieved”. As announced in recent weeks, PSG have just been caught by UEFA for non-respect of financial fair play, as seven other European clubs including OM, Monaco or even its future European opponent Juventus. Over the seasons from 2018 to 2022, the clubs in question “did not comply with the requirement relating to financial equilibrium” according to the Trial Chamber of the Club Financial Control Body (CFCB), which verifies the European club accounts. In other words and simplifying, PSG spent more than it generated income, despite an authorized deficit of €60m over the period in question. The Covid had pushed UEFA to link the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons and to offer clubs “the possibility of making relative adjustments” to help them reduce their losses over time, but that was not enough. for the clubs in question which therefore come out of the nails over this period of four seasons. For now, they have been fined a total of €26 million, ranging from #300,000 for Monaco and Marseille to €10 million for PSG, which is the hardest punished, a sign that Paris is also the furthest from the nails since it is twice the second biggest penalty (5M€ to AS Roma). A reasonable fine but a very large reprieve This sum to be paid could however explode for all these teams, and particularly for PSG, which has no less than 55M€ in suspended fines, which would bring the total to 65M€! This is again almost double the second most sanctioned, AS Roma, which risks up to €35m. This huge suspended amount depends “on whether or not these clubs achieve the objectives set out in their respective settlement agreements”, with PSG having negotiated the agreement directly with UEFA. As the UEFA press release further explains, the clubs have made a three-year commitment “to comply with the football revenue rule by the 2025/26 season. They undertake to achieve intermediate annual objectives and to apply conditional financial and sporting measures if these objectives are not achieved. In other words, Paris will have to achieve intermediate objectives which have been set, but not disclosed, and at the end of the three seasons, it must be back in the nails of the FPF. Sanctions that go as far as expulsion Part of the agreements between UEFA and the clubs concerned has been published by the body and we learn some additional details. The current procedure began in February or March and is therefore the result of six months of investigation, the agreements having been ratified in August. Now punished clubs are supposed to submit UEFA-specified documents every six months showing their economic progress that will allow them to get back on track. It should be noted that, if PSG or the others do not manage to get back on track, they risk the following sanctions: reduction in the number of players on the lists of UEFA competitions (Champions League, Europa League, etc.), impossibility of registering recruits on the lists in question and exclusion from subsequent UEFA competitions in the event of qualification during the following three seasons. The clubs now know what they are risking, it is up to them to get back into the nails or risk seeing the penalties be much stronger.