UEFA is gearing up to impose sanctions on Barcelona for breaching Financial Fair Play rules, casting a shadow over their season.
Barcelona is one of Europe’s most recognised teams and is preparing for the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League season.
The Catalan heavyweights face unprecedented financial issues, but now that UEFA is involved and investigating Barcelona’s recent run of questionable financial moves, UEFA officials are mulling sanctions that could hurt their planned campaign.
In its latest reporting via Marca, Barcelona will be sanctioned for a second consecutive year for violating UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.
Barcelona is expected to be on a forthcoming UEFA list of clubs that violated financial regulations. Possible sanctions could include restrictions on player registrations for the club’s appearance on European football’s biggest stage, or a deduction of points in the group stage, thereby damaging their chances of progressing.
This comes on the heels of the fine of €500,000 (€500K) that the club received in 2023 for misrepresenting profits in the year 2022.
The Court of Arbitration upheld this fine for Sport (CAS).
The CAS indicated that any further breaches could lead to harsher penalties, and in doing so, illustrated how precarious the club was in terms of its financial situation.
The key is Barcelona’s employment of financial “levers” (under President Joan Laporta), including selling an indefinite amount of future TV rights and areas of the club’s assets, as a means to mitigate their economic crisis.
However, UEFA does not consider this “normal” operating income, which is leading to discrepancies in the club’s financial declarations.
With UEFA soon to act, Barcelona is facing a pivotal summer.
Their delicate balancing act of squad rebuilding whilst navigating increasing scrutiny of their finances is going to put the resilience of the club to the test in its efforts to build back up again amongst Europe’s elite.
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