UEFA Club Financial Control Body update on monitoring for 2017/18

The UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) Investigatory Chamber, headed by chief investigator Yves Leterme, today provided an update on the monitoring of the settlement agreements signed with 12 clubs in the past years and on the monitoring of the break-even requirement for clubs having participated to the UEFA club competitions 2017/18.

Monitoring of the settlement agreements

The CFCB Investigatory Chamber confirmed that FC Krasnodar, FC Lokomotiv Moscow, AS Monaco FC, AS Roma and FC Zenit St Petersburg have been considered in compliance with the requirements and overall objective of their agreements. Consequently, they have all exited the settlement regime.

FC Astana, Beşiktaş JK and FC Porto have complied with the targets set for season 2017/18 and will remain in the settlement regime. The settlement regime will continue to apply for season 2018/19 for both FC Astana and Beşiktaş JK; and up to and including season 2020/21 for FC Porto; as originally foreseen.

The CFCB Investigatory Chamber further concluded that Fenerbahçe SK, FC Internazionale Milano and Trabzonspor AŞ have partially fulfilled the targets set for season 2017/18. As a consequence, the foreseen conditional sporting measures, such as the transfer restrictions and the limitation on the number of players in the List A, will not be lifted and will continue to apply in the season 2018/19. Additional financial contributions, if applicable, will be withheld as specified in each respective agreement. The settlement regime will continue to apply for season 2018/19 for both FC Internazionale Milano and Trabzonspor AŞ; and up to and including season 2019/20 for Fenerbahçe SK; as originally foreseen.

The CFCB Investigatory Chamber decided to refer the case of FC Rubin Kazan to the CFCB Adjudicatory Chamber as the club breached its settlement agreement signed in May 2014. Indeed, the club failed to comply with the break-even requirement during the monitoring period assessed in the season 2017/18.

Monitoring of the break-even requirement

The CFCB Investigatory Chamber further decided to close the investigation into Paris Saint-Germain. Such decision follows a detailed review of transfer contracts and an analysis of the related management accounts which confirmed that such transactions were in line with the UEFA Club Licensing & Financial Fair Play Regulations. Furthermore, the chamber concluded that after significant fair value adjustments of several club sponsorship contracts - on the basis of evaluations performed by independent third party assessors - the break-even result of the club remains within acceptable deviation for the financial years ending in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The financial impact of transfer activities as from the 2017 summer – up to and including the upcoming transfer window - and compliance with the break-even requirement for the 2018 financial year will remain under close scrutiny and will be thoroughly looked at in the coming weeks.

The CFCB Investigatory Chamber further decided to impose a fine of €100,000 on Olympique de Marseille for a minor breach of the break-even requirement in monitoring period 2017/18. The club will continue to be under monitoring of the break-even requirement for the period 2018/19.

Finally, the CFCB today announced that two clubs, Galatasaray SK and Maccabi Tel Aviv FC, were not in compliance with the break-even requirement and have agreed to conclude settlement agreements.

With the conclusion of two new agreements, eight clubs are under the settlement regime in the season 2018/19, i.e., FC Astana, Beşiktaş JK, Fenerbahçe SK, Galatasaray SK, FC Internazionale Milano, Maccabi Tel Aviv, FC Porto and Trabzonspor AŞ.

Below are the details of these two new settlement agreements:

Galatasaray SK

• The settlement agreement covers the sporting seasons 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22.

• Galatasaray undertakes to reach full break-even compliance by monitoring period 2021/22 (i.e. reporting periods ending in 2019, 2020 and 2021).

• Galatasaray agrees to report a maximum break-even deficit as reported in its forecast for the financial year ending in 2018, €20m in financial year ending in 2019 and €10m for the financial year ending in 2020.

• Galatasaray agrees that, for the financial year ending in 2019 and for the financial year ending in 2020, the employee benefit expenses to revenue ratio, amortisation of player registrations and net bank debt level are restricted.

• Galatasaray agrees to pay a total amount up to €15m, which will be withheld from any revenues it earns from participating in UEFA competitions commencing in season 2017/18. Of this amount, €6m shall be paid in full, irrespective of any early exit from the settlement regime. Payment of the remaining €9m is conditional and may be withheld in certain circumstances depending on the club's compliance with the operational and financial measures imposed in the settlement agreement.

• Galatasaray accepts that it will be subject to a limitation on the number of players that it may include on the A list for the purposes of participation in UEFA competitions. Specifically, for seasons 2018/19 to 2021/22, Galatasaray may only register a maximum of 21 players on the A list, instead of the potential maximum of 25 as foreseen in the relevant competition regulations. Such restriction will be lifted (for season 2019/20 to 22 players, for season 2020/21 to 23 players and for season 2021/22 to 25 players) if the club fulfils the operational and financial measures agreed with the CFCB Investigatory Chamber.

• Galatasaray accepts, for the duration of the settlement agreement, a calculated limitation on the number of new registrations it may include within its A list for the purposes of participation in UEFA competitions. This calculation is based on the club's net transfer position in each respective registration period covered by the agreement. Such restriction will be lifted for season 2021/22 if the club fulfils the operational and financial measures agreed with the CFCB Investigatory Chamber.

Maccabi Tel Aviv FC

• The settlement agreement covers the sporting seasons 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21.

• Maccabi Tel Aviv FC undertakes to reach full break-even compliance by monitoring period 2020/21 (i.e. reporting periods ending in 2018, 2019 and 2020).

• Maccabi Tel Aviv FC agrees to report a maximum break-even deficit of €20m for the financial year ending in 2018 and €10m in financial year ending in 2019.

• Maccabi Tel Aviv FC agrees that, for the financial year ending in 2019 the employee benefit expenses to revenue ratio is restricted.

• Maccabi Tel Aviv FC agrees to pay a total amount up to €1m, which will be withheld from any revenues it earns from participating in UEFA competitions commencing in season 2017/18. Of this amount, €200,000 shall be paid in full, irrespective of any early exit from the settlement regime. Payment of the remaining €800,000 is conditional and may be withheld in certain circumstances depending on the club's compliance with the operational and financial measures imposed in the settlement agreement.

• Maccabi Tel Aviv FC accepts that it will be subject to a limitation on the number of players that it may include on the A list for the purposes of participation in UEFA competitions. Specifically, for season 2018/19, it may only register a maximum of 22 players on the A list, instead of the potential maximum of 25 as foreseen in the relevant competition regulations.

• Maccabi Tel Aviv FC accepts, for the duration of the settlement agreement, a calculated limitation on the number of new registrations it may include within its A list for the purposes of participation in UEFA competitions. This calculation is based on the club's net transfer position in each respective registration period covered by the agreement. Such restriction will be lifted as for seasons 2019/20 and 2020/21 if the club fulfils the operational and financial measures agreed with the UEFA CFCB.

The detailed public version of these two settlement agreements will be published on UEFA.com in due course.