At FC Barcelona, we are surprised by the news that the Catalan club has been excluded from the Champions League.
A few hours after the European Court of Justice’s ruling called into question the dominant position of UEFA and FIFA, putting the Super League project back at the centre of discussions, Barça received an incredible threat yesterday. The German media outlet Welt reported that the club faces a real threat of exclusion from the Champions League, starting next season and for the following seasons.
The reason? According to the German publication, the fact that UEFA only considers sporting income as part of its financial fair play. The famous levers activated by Barça, enabling them to post a net profit of over 300 million euros in their latest balance sheet, would not be taken into account. A major threat, if confirmed, but one that does not seem to worry the Catalan club. In an interview with Mundo Deportivo, Barça insists it has no trace of any potential risk of sanctions, and is surprised to see this information emerge just a few hours after the European decisions that strengthened its position against UEFA in the Super League dossier.
Why is Barcelona under threat ?
According to the German newspaper Die Welt, FC Barcelona are under threat of exclusion from next season’s European cups for breaching the rules of financial fair play. UEFA, which is very concerned about the Catalan club’s financial situation, is said to have doubts about the financial statement recently presented by Barcelona’s directors. The spectre was raised again on Friday evening by an article in the German newspaper Die Welt. According to the German daily’s investigation, Barcelona are not in compliance with UEFA’s financial fair play rules, which the European body assesses over three-year cycles.
Last September, at a press conference to present their financial results, the Catalan club and its president Joan Laporta announced a net profit of 304 million euros. A sum which, on paper, removed the threat of an infringement and therefore of sanctions up to and including expulsion from the Champions League.
However, UEFA’s calculation of financial fair play takes into account income linked solely to football and not to the club’s overall activity (Barça being a multi-sport club with a wide variety of activities). Revenues from future TV rights or marketing are not taken into account either. Added to this is the article published in October by Cadena Cope, in which the media outlet stated that the Catalan club would in fact have a negative balance sheet of -34 million euros after payment of taxes and arrears.
According to Die Welt, UEFA offically considers Barça’s accounts to be “a disaster”, as a result of the debt of over a billion euros that the club has been carrying since the change in governance. Joan Laporta’s management team, which picked up the tab, had to activate a number of levers to bring in money as a matter of urgency, by reducing the wage bill or selling off certain assets (the club’s TV, for example) in the now infamous “palanca”.
UEFA is reportedly considering suspending Barça from the European Cup for “two to three years”, given the serious financial situation of a club that is also having its stadium completely renovated this season (the reason for relocating matches to Montjuic). The news caused quite a stir in the Spanish media on Friday evening.
Barça strongly supported the Super League project that was relaunched on Thursday in the wake of the announcement of the European Court of Justice’s opinion, in the hope of huge revenues that would wipe out some or all of its debt.
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