The CFCB renders decisions on overdue payables

The First Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body has finalised its first assessment of the solvency requirements based on the new UEFA Club Licensing & Financial Sustainability Regulations.

The First Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB First Chamber) announced today that eleven clubs, Aris Thessaloniki FC (GRE), FC Astana (KAZ), FK Borac Banja Luka (BIH), CFR 1907 Cluj (ROU), Floriana FC (MLT), Konyaspor (TUR), FC Kyzyl-Zhar SK Petropavlosk (KAZ), ŠD NK Olimpija Ljubljana (SVN), NK Osijek (CRO), HNK Rijeka (CRO) and Valmiera FC (LVA) have been imposed disciplinary measures due to their non-compliance with the solvency requirements (“no overdue payables”) during this 2022/23 season.

Following the approval of the new UEFA Club Licensing & Financial Sustainability Regulations in April 2022, the solvency requirements have been strengthened and clubs participating in UEFA competitions were assessed by the CFCB First Chamber on three occasions during this 2022/23 season, i.e. in July 2022, October 2022 and January 2023.

Due to recidivism and/or payables being overdue for more than 90 days, the following clubs were imposed an exclusion, subject to the conditions below, from participating in the next UEFA club competition for which they would otherwise qualify in the three subsequent seasons (i.e. 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27 seasons):

- For CFR 1907 Cluj (ROU) and NK Osijek (CRO), the exclusion is suspended for a probationary period of two seasons and will only be enforced if these clubs do not fulfil the solvency requirements in the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons.

- For Aris Thessaloniki FC (GRE), FC Astana (KAZ), ŠD NK Olimpija Ljubljana (SVN) and HNK Rijeka (CRO), the exclusion is suspended for a probationary period of one season and will only be enforced if these clubs do not fulfil the solvency requirements in the 2023/24 season.

In addition, the following clubs were imposed the following fines for having overdue payables during the 2022/23 season: CFR 1907 Cluj (ROU) - € 250,000, NK Osijek (CRO) - € 150,000, Konyaspor (TUR) - €150,000, ŠD NK Olimpija Ljubljana (SVN) - € 100,000, Aris Thessaloniki FC (GRE) - € 50,000, Valmiera FC (LVA) - € 50,000, FC Astana (KAZ) - € 30,000, Borac Banja Luka (BIH) - €10,000, FC Kyzyl-Zhar SK Petropavlosk (KAZ) - € 10,000 and Floriana (MLT) - €10,000. In the case of Floriana (MLT), an additional conditional fine of €10,000 will be enforced if the club does not prove by 31 March 2023 that it has fully paid the minor amounts that were overdue only in January 2023.

Furthermore, in the cases of NK Osijek (CRO) and HNK Rijeka (CRO), the CFCB First Chamber found that those clubs had not fulfilled the club licencing criteria because they had overdue payables in March 2022. Such criteria must be complied with by the clubs in order to be granted the licence required to enter the UEFA club competitions. As a consequence, an additional fine of € 450,000, corresponding to the UEFA revenues earned by each club by participating in the 2022/23 UEFA Europa Conference League, has been imposed on those clubs by the CFCB First Chamber.