The controversies over the Financial Fair-Play (FPF), established by UEFA in 2011 to limit the deficit of their clubs, lived their last chapter on Monday, with the ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS), which decided to lift the two-year punishment of Manchester City. The case of the English club joins that of other greats of European football with pressing problems in the balance of their accounts.

The TAS, without mercy of Milan

The financial hardships for the Rossoneri began in the summer of 2017, shortly after Silvio Berlusconi closed the sale of the club to Chinese businessman Li Yonghong . At that time, UEFA questioned the € 200m investment in signings, so Milan voluntarily submitted an economic plan, rejected months later by the top European body. Then, as it has now happened with the City, he obtained a pardon from the TAS.

The seven-time European Cup champion has accumulated 500 million euros in losses since 2014, of which 146 correspond only to the 2018-2019 financial year. In the last six seasons he has not been able to compete in the maximum continental competition. With a high salary mass and rising costs, its turnover stagnated for several seasons around 250 million euros per year.

The archived cause of PSG

After being acquired in 2011 by the sovereign wealth fund Qatar Sport Investment (QSI), the Parisian club was declared a suspect in "financial doping" because of several sponsorship contracts deemed overvalued.

His overwhelming breakthrough into the 2017 summer market, with more than 400 million euros to take over the services of Neymar and Kylian Mbappé , further aroused UEFA's misgivings. Since then, the reigning Ligue 1 champion has tried to diversify his sources of income to escape economic dependence from Qatar. Thus, the TAS estimated in March 2019 that the case of the French team was "closed".

Malaga as a pioneer

In December 2012, the UEFA Financial Control Committee set a precedent by excluding the Blue and Whites from European tournaments the following season. The appeal presented before the TAS did not bear fruit and the initial fine of 300,000 euros was even maintained. Thus, Manuel Pellegrini's team, led by Martín Demichelis, Isco Alarcón, Eliseu or Javier Saviola, was separated from the Europa League, despite finishing LaLiga in sixth position.

At that time, the body chaired by Michel Platini considered that Malaga's financial situation was poor and did not meet its payment commitments. An extreme that was always denied by the Qatari sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani, at that time the owner of the Andalusian entity.

Also in the East

Other less relevant cases affected the Red Star, champion of Europe in 1991, who deprived of competing in the Champions League in 2014, despite his title of champion of the Serbian league. In 2015 it was the turn of Dinamo Moscow, which saw its classification for the Europa League canceled and which dropped to second in the following season. Lastly, Galatasaray, the only Turkish club with a continental title - the 2000 UEFA Cup - received the same sanction in 2016.

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