UEFA has launched a sanction procedure, initially financial, against Paris Saint Germain (PSG) and Olympique de Marseille (OM) because it considers that the two French clubs have not complied with the rules of financial fair play.
The newspaper L’Equipe revealed this Friday that both PSG and OM have received a “payment agreement” a few days ago sent by the UEFA Club Financial Control Instance (ICFC), as well as the threat of suffering some sports-type punishment if in the coming seasons they do not stop spending money on signings above what is stipulated by the principles of European football.
In June it was leaked that the two teams were part of a group of thirty in total from all over Europe that had had to respond to demands for information from the ICFC about their accounts.
The experts of that instance have not been convinced by the responses of PSG and OM. For this reason, they have now decided to formalize that “agreement” that has been submitted to them to sanction them financially.
In case of rejecting it, the two French clubs are exposed to other firm sanctions that are tougher than the initial ones. They could appeal it to an appeal body of the ICFC, and if they did not listen to them, go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
L’Équipe affirms that PSG considers it has arguments to reverse this sanction, especially since French football has experienced exceptional circumstances that have affected its finances.
In the first place because of the contract on television rights that had been signed with Mediapro, and that the Spanish production company abandoned. Also due to the long break in the French league since April 2020 due to the covid and the fact that the social contributions of the first division teams in France are “much higher” than in other European countries.
The club from the French capital, owned by a Qatari state fund, has already been targeted twice in the past by UEFA experts for alleged breaches of financial fair play rules.
In 2014 he was forced to sign an agreement that contemplated a fine of 60 million euros, 40 million of which were exempt from compliance. In 2018, the procedure ended up filed by the CAS for procedural reasons: it was estimated that the deadlines had been exceeded.
Now, the Spanish Professional Football League (LFP) wants PSG, like Manchester City, to bear the consequences of their transfer policies, which in their opinion continually infringe fair play established by UEFA.
In mid-June, the LFP announced that it was going to file a lawsuit with the French courts to prevent the validation of Kylian Mbappé’s new contract. EFE
