Barcelona have been fined €800,000 (£705,000) for breaching La Liga’s Financial Fair Play rules in relation to three contracts. The fine relates to the signing of free agents Dani Alves and Andreas Christensen along with the contract extension of defender Ronald Araujo at Camp Nou. The amount of the fine is based on Barca’s financial account for the 2021/2022 season.
Alves joined Barca on a short-term deal until the end of the season in January 2022, while Christensen was brought to the Blaugrana from Chelsea last summer. Araujo’s new contract has yet to be signed due to Barca’s financial situation, but the proposal has already resulted in them being fined.
Barca is constantly being blown away by La Liga because of FFP.
According to Catalan media outlet ARA, Barca plans to challenge all three charges and will issue a legal response to each sanction. This will be the latest dispute between the Catalan giants and the league. This comes after a busy year with the signings of Robert Lewandowski, Ferran Torres, Raphinha, Christensen, Marcos Alonso, Hector Bellerin, Franck Kessie and Jules Kounde among the countless arrivals at the Camp Nou.
It is the result of a series of “economic leverage”, essentially selling the club’s assets and television rights, which will lead to a decrease in earnings over the next 25 years. Barca’s financial situation will take another blow next year with the Camp Nou redevelopment plan.
La Liga president Javier Tebas explained that the club’s use of this so-called “lever” will not be applicable to subsequent seasons: “The levers worked for them during the season. this but not for the next seasons. They have to reduce the volume of wages, they cannot continue with more than 500 million euros (£436 million).”
The city’s Olympic stadium – also known as the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys – will host Barca’s home matches during the 2023/2024 season during their renovation of the Camp Nou. Barca believe the work at Camp Nou and the surrounding area has the potential to generate an additional £160m per season in revenue for the club once completed. Barca’s project coincided with the club’s sale of the stadium naming rights to Spotify.
The new stadium is expected to bring great profits for Barca.
Recently, UEFA’s Licensing Committee reviewed Barcelona’s complaint about the signing of Christensen. The Denmark international joined from Chelsea earlier in the summer, but Barcelona are found to have breached the rules regarding the 2021/2022 financial year. For this reason, Barcelona currently only has to pay 580,000 euros in fines.
But with La Liga imposing more sanctions, it remains to be seen what measures the Catalan side intends to take to oppose the move.
Thanh Vu | 16:33 04/01/2023
