FC Barcelona risk UEFA sanctions: reports

New threats are looming for FC Barcelona. On Wednesday, the prestigious British media ‘The Times’ reports that UEFA has the ‘Cules’ in the crosshairs and could sanction them for the next season for economic reasons. Also to Chelsea and Aston Villa, but they are not repeat offenders within the same cycle as the ‘Cules’.

According to this information, Barca would have reoffended by breaking the financial rules for the second consecutive time. Previously, the governing body of European fooaball lready gave a warning to the ‘Cules’ for giving incorrect economic information; for it fell at the time a fine of 500,000 euros. Now it would have happened again.

On the first occasion, the board headed by Joan Laporta included as "other operating income" the sale of 10% of its television rights for the next 25 years in 2022. However, these were to be described as "profits from losses of intangible assets", a concept not computable within the Financial Fair Play.

A few months later, the club transferred a further 15% of the same rights for €400 million and again described them as "operational income". As a result, UEFA acted and sanctioned the club with the aforementioned half a million euros. Although Barca went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, they eventually had to pay.

Now, after allegedly having again failed to comply with UEFA's Financial Fair Play, the sanction against Barca could be more than a financial fine. In this case, the Catalan side is exposed to a limitation in the number of players to be registered in the Champions League or a deduction of points in the season.

The newspaper ‘AS’ reports that UEFA has not wanted to comment on this information because the Club Financial Control Committee is an external body, but a statement can be expected in the coming weeks. In it will be known the measures that the European organization will have taken with Chelsea, Aston Villa and the recidivist Barca.