Floriana FC’s financial worries were compounded yesterday when they learned that they had their 2012/13 Europa League participation prize money withheld after UEFA handed its first sanctions under the newly-introduced Financial Fair Play rules.
The BOV Premier League club were among the 23 outfits across Europe to have overdue payments to other teams, their own employees or tax authorities.
As a result, their share for taking part in European competition was withheld pending further investigation, UEFA said.
The clubs sanctioned will now have to provide an updated report on September 30 to the Club Financial Control Body’s investigative chamber led by former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene.
“This measure will remain in force until all identified balances have been settled in full or until a final decision by the (UEFA committee) is taken,” UEFA said.
The sanction is a blow for the financially-stricken Floriana who sought to reduce costs this season by offloading some of their esta-blished players.
Last year, the Greens earned €90,000 for their participation in the Europa League and this year they were banking to receive the same amount of money to put their finances in the black.
In July, Floriana were ousted from the Europa League qualifiers after a 12-0 aggregate defeat to Swedish side IF Elfsborg.
Floriana FC secretary Dione Borg is hopeful the situation will return to normal soon.
“These are all back-dated issues the new committee is dealing with,” he said.
“We were surprised to hear the news from UEFA though as we’re putting all our efforts to see the club back to normal.
“In fact, we’ve already settled some of the pending payments. If things stay this way we should clear our club with UEFA very soon.”
Among other clubs under investigation are Europa League winners Atletico Madrid and Malaga, of Spain, Dinamo Bucharest and Rapid Bucharest of Romania, Turkey’s Fenerbahce, Serbia’s Partizan Belgrade and FK Sarajevo.
Last season, Atletico earned around €10.5 million for qualifying from the group stages and reaching the final which they won against Athletic Bilbao 3-0.
There were no clubs from the English Premier League, German Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A or France’s Ligue 1 among the listed names.
Meanwhile, 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 yesterday.
“However, it seems that 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.”
The new UEFA regulations...
UEFA approved the introduction of the far-reaching Financial Fair Play rules in 2009 in a bid to reduce debt and introduce better and more transparent financial dealings among clubs.
The measures were introduced to stop clubs from spending their way into oblivion and to force them to live within their means.
They are also intended to stop wealthy owners from trying to buy success with limitless spending on players, distorting the transfer market in the process.
Transfer fees and outgoing payments have been monitored since the start of the 2011/12 season with clubs tasked with breaking even in 2012 and 2013.
If clubs have not come into line by then, they could be thrown out of European competition.