Manchester United Fined €300,000 by UEFA for Financial Fair Play Violations

(CTN News) – In a recent development, Manchester United has been fined €300,000 (£257,000) by UEFA for breaching financial fair play regulations over four years from 2019 to 2022.

UEFA Imposes €300,000 Fine on Manchester United for FFP Violations

The club reported a minor break-even deficit during the specified financial years, leading to the imposed penalty. This fine is part of UEFA’s final monitoring of the old financial fair play rules, which new regulations have replaced since then.

Manchester United issued a statement expressing their disappointment but accepting the fine, acknowledging the minor technical breach of the previous financial fair play rules as highlighted by UEFA.

The club explained that the discrepancy in the reported deficit was due to changes in UEFA’s adjustment for Covid-19 losses during the 2022 reporting period. These changes resulted in only €15m of the €281m pandemic-related revenue losses being recognized within the financial fair play calculation.

The club further emphasized that its revenues have significantly recovered post-pandemic and are projected to reach record levels in the current financial year.

Manchester United reiterated its commitment to supporting the enforcement of rules promoting financial fair play and sustainability in domestic and European football.

It has been revealed that Manchester United could not adjust for €47m of Covid-19 losses in the 2022 monitoring period due to an unexpected change in how UEFA treated those losses during the transition to its revised financial sustainability regulatory framework. These losses added to the €234m pandemic-related losses incurred by the club between 2019-20 and 2020-21.

Manchester United also highlighted that the Premier League allowed adjustments for the 2022 monitoring period, enabling the club to comply with domestic financial fair play rules.

Apart from Manchester United, other clubs such as Barcelona, Istanbul Basaksehir, Konyaspor, and Apoel were also fined by UEFA for various financial fair play breaches.