The European Football Union (UEFA) on Friday sanctioned 11 European football clubs, including one in Slovenia, where federation president Aleksandar Ceferin was a member of its board of directors, for breaching financial control rules.
Six clubs, including Olympia Ljubljana and Romanian champions Cluj, were threatened with a one-year ban from the next European Championship, which will qualify until 2027.
UEFA reports that these clubs have probationary periods of one or two years, when certain financial targets are reached.
A confederation-appointed investigative panel fined Olympia 100,000 euros ($106,000) for late or non-payment of wages, transfer fees or social taxes.
It is the second fine imposed on Olimpia under UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules after Ceffron stepped down from the club’s management team 12 years ago.
Last season Croatian clubs Osijek and Rijeka were hit with huge financial fines for late payments.
UEFA said the two clubs were stripped of 450,000 euros ($478,000) worth of prizes won from playing in the European Conference League this season.
Cluj, who played in the Champions League qualifiers this season and reached the Europa League knockout stage before losing to Lazio last week, were charged 250,000 euros ($266,000).
Other fines range from 150,000 euros ($159,000) to 10,000 euros ($10,600) for Aris Thessaloniki, Astana, Porac Banja Luka, Floriana, Konyaspor, Kizil Zahar SK Petropavlusk, Osi.
Sunil Gulati, former chairman of the NFL and economics lecturer at Columbia University, chairs UEFA’s club finance committee.
Gulati and Shiffrin were colleagues on the FIFA Council from 2016 to 2021.
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