SOCCER NEWS:EUROPA LEAGUE winners Atletico Madrid were among 23 clubs to have prize money withheld as Uefa revealed the first sanctions under its financial fair play rules yesterday.
The measures were announced as members of the European Clubs Association (ECA), which represents more than 200 clubs, were warned at a meeting in Geneva that some of them were not taking the new rules seriously.
“ECA members unanimously endorsed the financial fair play project back in 2010,” said ECA president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who is also Bayern Munich’s chief executive. “However, it seems quite a few clubs have not understood the message. Time has come to take the new rules seriously. ECA will continue to support financial fair play.”
Uefa said the 23 clubs, who also include Qatari-owned La Liga side Malaga and Portugal’s Sporting, were found to have “important” overdue payments to other teams, their own employees or social and tax authorities. As a result their money for taking part in European competition would be withheld pending further investigation, Uefa said in a statement.
The clubs will have to provide an updated report on September 30th. There were no clubs from the English Premier League, German Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A or France’s Ligue 1 named.
Uefa will share €100 million among the clubs who released players for the Euro 2012 finals and qualifying competition, the ECA said yesterday. The amounts range from €3.095 million in the case of Bayern Munich to a more modest €3,494 for English lower-tier club Barnsley, Finland’s Jyvaskyla and Turkey’s Bucaspor. The other top beneficiaries were Real Madrid (€2.996 million), Barcelona (€2.210 million), Manchester City (€2.069 million) and Juventus (€2.023 million).
