The CAS does not forgive Barça and punishes it for skipping Fair Play

He Court of Arbitration for Sports (TAS) has rejected the appeal presented by Barcelona for the sanction imposed by the UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) for skip Financial Fair Play in fiscal year 2022. At that time, the Barça club was fined 500,000 euros for incorrectly declaring, in the 2022 financial year, profits from the disposal of intangible assetssomething different from player transfers, which do not constitute relevant income according to the regulations.

The CAS has now confirmed the financial sanction to the Catalan club, half a million euros. The magistrates of the European body consider that Barcelona’s infraction was deliberate. The CAS confirms that Barcelona insisted on classifying the sale of 25% of LaLiga television rights to Sixth Street for 267 million as operating income, and which was presented as relevant and non-extraordinary income. The First Chamber of Appeals of the Club Financial Control Body (CFCB), which regulates the Financial Fair Playconcluded in 2023 that the evaluation of Barcelona’s 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 financial years did not comply with UEFA Fair Play rules due to this fact.

Barcelona was not satisfied with the sanction imposed and decided to appeal the punishment by going to the CAS, but this body has rejected the allegations of Laporta and has confirmed the fine, in addition to issuing several warnings to the Barça club in his ruling. «The supposedly disastrous financial situation of Barcelona does not justify any violation of the applicable regulations. Probably, If Barcelona had managed its expenses in a better waywould not have been induced to the Sale or the attempt to misclassify the amounts received from said Sale,” you explain in your conclusions. And he adds: «The discrepancy in the classification has an important impact on Barcelona’s balance results, not only now but also, without a doubt, for the next two seasonsgiven that one monitoring period covers three consecutive reporting periods.