By Andrew Warshaw
May 14 – After days of silence, UEFA finally came clean today and admitted that they are not yet ready to announce any financial fair play sanctions. In what will be widely interpreted as a partial fudge, UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino made it clear that negotiations with nine clubs deemed in breach of the strict regulations were still ongoing.
Manchester City and Paris St. Germain, both bankrolled by Middle East investors, are among those who are reported to have broken the rules as a result of their relentless quest to become permanent members of European football’s affluent elite.
The two success-chasing clubs are understood to be among the remaining nine of the original 76 investigated by UEFA for possible breaches of strict financial breakeven criteria. Those among the nine who have accepted so-called “settlements” were due to be named by Europe’s governing body at the end of last week.
That was delayed, without any explanation, until the beginning of this week – until UEFA finally broke its silence. It is not clear whether City and PSG, financed by Abu Dhabi and Qatar backers respectively, had accepted the penalties imposed by the Investigatory Chamber of UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body by last Friday’s deadline or whether they have decided to appeal to the CFCB’s higher adjudication panel for a final binding decision in June.
“There is a procedure in place which is followed and which is normal when you speak about legal proceedings,” Infantino told reporters following a UEFA executive committee meeting in Turin. “Time has to be taken for cases to be analysed in a detailed way.”
Despite UEFA’s own desired time scale, Infantino appeared to deflect the organisation’s clear frustrations on to the media. “The fact that decisions are not taken the moment the media expect means simply the procedure is not concluded,” he said. “There are still nine clubs involved in the investigations. When they either reach a settlement or reach a conclusion there is no settlement, this will be published.”
UEFA have made it clear they ideally want the entire process, including any appeals, to be completed by the start of next season but this is now looking fragile. Yet Infantino, who refused to divulge precise details of why no clubs could yet be named, insisted: “It’s still quite well on track and I am not worried or anxious. We are still aiming at having a clear picture before the start of next season.”
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