By Andrew Warshaw
April 15 – The UEFA body probing whether Europe’s clubs are complying with financial fair play are meeting today and tomorrow – with those who continue to spend beyond their means likely to be named early next month.
As FFP starts to bite, UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body’s (CFCB) investigatory chamber, headed by former Belgium prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, is expected to offer some clubs still in breach of the break-even regulations with a compromise settlement to avoid them receiving harsher sanctions at a later stage.
Last month, UEFA revealed that almost a third of the teams who entered their two club competitions this season were in danger of falling foul of the regulations. UEFA administrators and legal experts revealed that 76 clubs out of the 237 who started in the Champions League and Europa League were being investigated for potentially failing strict break-even rules. Crucially, this figure is understood to have since been significantly reduced to fewer than 20.
At this point, UEFA will not say who the remaining non-complaint clubs are but they are due to be identified at the beginning of May, rather than late April as had been originally communicated, once they have been contacted.
“UEFA does not provide any details about clubs’ ongoing investigations as part of the monitoring process nor will it comment on correspondence between the Club Financial Control Body and clubs,” a statement said. “UEFA will only communicate once decisions have been taken by the CFCB Investigatory Chamber, which we anticipate will happen at the beginning of May.”
UEFA’s break-even rule allows for losses of up to €45 million over a two-year period so long as owners create more equity in the club to cover the losses. This excludes areas such as youth development and infrastructure. Non-compliant clubs who reject the CFCB’s decisions will be referred to the panel’s adjudicatory panel for a final verdict in early June, with any appeals then heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ahead of the new season.
The CFCB panel this week will have four options open to them: a) dismiss the case; b) conclude, with the consent of the defendant, a settlement agreement; c) apply, with the consent of the defendant, disciplinary measures limited to a warning, a reprimand or a fine up to a maximum amount of €100,000; or d) refer the case to the adjudicatory chamber.
Clubs then have 10 days to respond before a further CFCB meeting which will either validate the agreements made or refer them to the higher adjudicatory chamber for further action which could potentially include throwing clubs out of European competition though this is not considered likely.
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