Liverpool are under investigation by UEFA for potential breaches of financial fair play (FFP).Roma, Monaco, Inter and Liverpool are among seven clubs that are being investigated for possible breaches of financial fair play regulations, UEFA said yesterday.
Liverpool were absent from European competition last year and only recently submitted detailed accounts to the governing body, which dictates that losses must be restricted to £35.4 million over a two-year window.
The Merseyside club reported losses of £49.8 million for the 2012-13 season, and £40.5 million for the 10-month period before that.
Besiktas, FC Krasnodar and Sporting Lisbon are also being investigated over possible breaches of the rules designed to stop clubs spending more than they earn through generated revenue, UEFA said.
UEFA said the clubs had “disclosed a break-even deficit on the basis of their financial reporting periods ending in 2012 and 2013.
‘UEFA said a total of 115 clubs involved in European competition this year would be monitored throughout the season and have been requested to submit additional information, including their overdue payables situation’
“These clubs will need to submit additional monitoring information during October and November upon the deadlines set out by the Club Financial Control Board (CFCB), subsequent to which an additional communication shall be made and conservatory measures may be imposed,” said UEFA.
UEFA said a total of 115 clubs involved in European competition this year would be monitored throughout the season and have been requested to submit additional information, including their overdue payables situation.
In addition, five clubs involved in European club competition this season have had prize money withheld because of “important overdue payables towards other clubs, employees and/or social/tax authorities on June 30,” UEFA added.
The clubs are Bursaspor (Turkey), Cluj (Romania), Astra Giurgiu (Romania), Buducnost Podgorica (Montenegro) and Ekranas (Lithuania), UEFA said.
“Such decisions are not final but of a provisional nature,” UEFA said, adding they would remain in force until further checks had been completed in December.
Manchester City and Paris St Germain were the clubs hit hardest by UEFA last season for breaching FFP rules – they were each fined £49 million and handed restrictions on transfer spending and a reduction in Champions League squad size.
Reflecting on the recent work of CFCB and the FFP regulations, the UEFA statement continued: “The introduction of the UEFA club licensing and financial fair play regulations has already had a very positive impact on the scale of overdue payables, as they have decreased from €57 million in June 2011 to eight million euros in June 2014.
“In addition, aggregate losses reported by Europe’s first-division clubs in the 2013 financial year have gone down to €800 million from a record-reported deficit of €1.7 billion in 2011.”