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Premier League giants Manchester United have been fined USD 337,064 for breaching financial fair play over a four-period tenure between 2019 and 2022. The fine has been imposed by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), as the Red Devils are said to have violated the Financial Fair Play Rules 2022.
The UK-based football club have been handed down the punishment for a ‘minor break-even deficit’, but the club claims that it won’t affect their summer transfer activity. Man United are one of the clubs in the continent to be sanctioned in the UEFA's final monitoring of its old financial play rules, which got replaced by the new ones last year. Barcelona is one of the clubs charged with a USD 561,275 fine for the wrong reporting of ‘disposal of intangible assets’, apart from the player transfers.
In a statement, UEFA said, “During the 2022/23 season the CFCB First Chamber, chaired by Sunil Gulati, concluded the assessment of the break-even requirement covering the financial years 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. This is the last time the CFCB assessed the clubs on the basis of the “old” Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations, Edition 2018.”
The statement further read, “Manchester United FC (ENG), Konyaspor (TUR), and APOEL FC (CYP) reported minor break-even deficits. These clubs were fined respectively €300,000, €100,000, and €100,000.”
Responding to the punishment, the club released a statement that read, “While disappointed by the outcome, Manchester United accepts this fine for what UEFA acknowledges to be a minor technical breach of its previous Financial Fair Play rules. This reflected a change in the way that UEFA adjusted for COVID-19 losses during the 2022 reporting period, which allowed us to recognise only €15m (£12.8m) of the €281m (£240m) of revenues lost due to the pandemic.”
Other than Man United, other clubs including Konyaspor (TUR) and APOEL FC (CYP) have been imposed with a fine of USD 112, 276 for the same reason as the Red Devils.
