Will the European future of OM be compromised? Accused of not respecting the rules of financial fair play, Olympique de Marseille on Thursday saw its case sent to the court of financial control of clubs. This UEFA decision opens the door to sanctions.
Olympique de Marseille "did not comply with the conditions of the agreement negotiated for the 2019/2020 season" and the chief investigator of the financial control body "decided to forward the file to the body judgment, "the Union said in a statement.
Pinned for non-compliance with financial fair play, OM signed an agreement with UEFA by which the Marseille club is forced to cut spending for four seasons. In this agreement, which runs until the 2022/2023 season, OM undertook to post "a maximum deficit of thirty million euros" over the financial year ended in 2020, "zero euros" in 2021 and finally "to achieve full compliance with the break-even point" in 2023, said UEFA last June.
Manchester City heavily sanctioned last month
As a reminder, financial fair play (FPF) prohibits a club engaged in European competition from spending more than it earns and closely supervises capital injections from owners. Sanctions can range from simple reprimand to exclusion from competitions. These regulations notably led UEFA to severely punish Manchester City recently, depriving it of the European Cups for the next two seasons.
Marseille, current second in Ligue 1 and which aims to participate in the Champions League next season, has also been deprived of a total of six million euros on possible income from its future participation in European competitions (C1 and C3 ): two million firm and four million euros conditional on the club's compliance with its commitments.
The Marseillais will finally have to limit to 23 (against 25 usually) the number of players they could register in European Cups during the 2020/2021 season. "This restriction will be lifted for the 2021/22 and / or 2022/23 seasons if the club complies with the agreed operational and financial measures," said UEFA in June.