Due to their submissions, Barcelona lost their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which puts them in danger of breaking UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations for the 2023-2024 season. Barça tried to classify the €267 million sale of 10% of their broadcasting rights over the next 25 years as “other operating income” in their annual financial report for 2023–2024, so that it would count toward their FFP situation. However, UEFA insisted that it should be classified as “profits on disposal of tangible assets,” which is not included in FFP calculations.
Barcelona was fined €500,000 for the false declaration; nevertheless, club representatives protested to CAS, contesting both the sentence and the decision to consider the income as significant. In the interim, UEFA decided to hold off on rendering a definitive judgment about Barcelona’s FFP compliance.
CAS upholds Barça’s fine for non-compliance with UEFA’s FFP rules
In order to challenge the decision issued by the Club Financial Control Body of UEFA, the organization that oversees European soccer, to reject an earlier appeal, Barca took their case to the highest court in sports in January. For falsely declaring gains on the sale of intangible assets in 2022, the Catalan club was punished by UEFA.
Regarding the proportionality of the fine, the CAS panel observed that both parties made full presentations. “Under the particular circumstances of this case, a fine of 500,000 euros is actually rather mild,” the panel concluded, finding no need to consider each and every claim. It noted that a smaller penalty “would likely not be a sufficiently strong deterrent to prevent a major club like FC Barcelona from intentionally misreporting income with a major impact on its break-even results.”
