Barcelona face further punishments for potential breaches of UEFA’s financial fair play (FFP) regulations, but club sources told ESPN they are hopeful any severe sanctions will be avoided.
Barça were fined €500,000 in 2023 for infringing FFP rules and The Times reported Tuesday they could be hit with a more severe penalty this time round, such as a points deduction ahead of next season’s Champions League or a reduced limit on the number of players they can register for the competition.
The violation relates to income registered by Barça on assets which are not considered relevant under UEFA regulations.
To ease financial problems in recent years, Barça have raised money by selling off a percentage of their income from broadcast rights, a stake in the the club’s in-house media company and, most recently, future revenue from VIP seats at Spotify Camp Nou, which is being developed.
These operations — known as ‘levers’ — are accepted by LaLiga but not by UEFA, who will make an announcement on any santion Barça may receive later this month.
Sources at Barça attempted to downplay the severity of the potential breaches, telling ESPN they expect, at most, a small financial penalty.
“We recently completed the financial audit process conducted by UEFA every two years,” a club source told ESPN. “The conclusions and possible consequences arising from this audit have not yet been notified to the club.
“The main discrepancy lies in the fact that UEFA does not consider some operations as ordinary income, the so-called levers, unlike the criteria of LaLiga, which does consider them as ordinary operating income.”
UEFA told ESPN they could not offer updates on individual cases.
“The UEFA Club Financial Control Body will review all relevant cases and further announcements regarding updates and settlements will be made around mid-June,” the governing body said.
Barça’s 2023 fine related to “wrongly reporting, in the financial year 2022, profits on disposal of intangible assets [other than player transfers] which are not a relevant income under the regulations.”
The club took the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but lost last October.
CAS said the €500,000 fine was “actually relatively mild” and warned Barça they faced “harsher” sanctions should they infringe the regulations again.
Information from ESPN’s Dale Johnson contributed to this report.
