Uefa writes to Inter and Milan: “Financial fairplay not respected”

Financial fair play has not disappeared. It will change, of course: the rules will be rewritten by the month of May and will come into force later, in all probability from the 2024-25 season. In the meantime, however, Uefa has set its sights on the budgets of half of Europe’s clubs, obviously affected by Covid. Result? Around 30 clubs failed to meet Nyon’s standards. Among these are Inter, Milan and Roma, who have already received written communication to that effect. And it is probable that Juve will join in shortly.

The facts

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Covid, it was said. In 2020, Uefa has already adapted the monitoring parameters: in practice, the three-year period to respect the deficit of 30 million overall (net of the so-called “virtuous” losses) has become a four-year period, combining 2020 and 2021, thus giving clubs have the opportunity to spread losses. It wasn’t enough. Inter made official the “correspondence” with Uefa yesterday, on the occasion of the presentation of the half-yearly report, a communication also due to the bond investors. “On 17 December 2021, Uefa officially communicated that the review of the break-even requirements provided by us – Inter wrote in its document – highlighted a significant aggregate deficit for the monitoring period that covers the reporting periods 2018, 2019. , 2020 and 2021 “. To blow the bank, at Inter, was the last deficit of 245 million: without the last balance the parameters would have been respected. However, Zhang’s club provided indications to UEFA regarding the current budget and future plans up to 2024-25. From there we arrived at the communication – dated February 14 – of the opening of a proceeding: the hearing will take place in mid-March (that of Milan between the end of the month and the beginning of April). What will happen now? Italian clubs expect clubs to be accompanied in the transitional period that will lead to the new rules. Sanctions are not expected, but it is true that today it is not possible to exclude them. Rather, it is the number of clubs involved that reassures: can UEFA sanction so many clubs?