Prize money withheld for six clubs

The UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) investigatory chamber, chaired by former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, has announced that six clubs involved in the 2013/14 UEFA club competitions have had their prize money temporarily withheld pending further investigation.

As part of the financial fair play requirements included in the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations (2012 edition), teams participating in this year's UEFA club competitions had to provide information regarding the status of any overdue payables as of 30 June.

Since its last meeting earlier this month, the CFCB investigatory chamber has identified that important overdue payables towards other clubs and/or towards employees or social/tax authorities existed in six cases.

These cases involve the following clubs: FC Astra Ploieşti (ROU), FC Metalurh Donetsk (UKR), HNK Hajduk Split (CRO), HŠK Zrinjski (BIH), Skonto FC (LVA) and Trabzonspor AŞ (TUR).

This conservatory measure will remain in force until all identified balances have been settled in full, or until a final decision by the CFCB adjudicatory chamber is taken.

In addition, the CFCB investigatory chamber has requested that an additional 25 clubs submit further information, and these sides will be monitored during the coming weeks. Consequently, a total of 31 clubs have been requested to provide an updated situation as of 30 September with regards to overdue payables.

The introduction of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations has already had a very positive impact on the scale of overdue payables, as they have decreased from €57m in June 2011 to €9m in June 2013.

In addition, and as shown in the latest UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play benchmarking report published today, there has been a €600m reduction in aggregate losses reported by Europe's top-flight clubs in the 2012 financial year, after six years of escalating losses.