AC Milan vs. FFP: What has UEFA dished out in the past?

AC Milan have been sanctioned by UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) for breaching Financial Fair Play regulations, particularly their “break-even requirement,“ requiring clubs to, as the title implies, break even over a certain period of time (often three years for UEFA cases).

As their punishment, Milan will be banned for one year of European competition in the next two seasons (2018-2019 and 2019-2020), whichever they qualify for. Milan is not the first team to be sanctioned by the CFCB for break-even requirement failures, and UEFA has published on their website whenever a club is sanctioned.

Here, for reference, is a breakdown of the past three years of UEFA CFCB sanctions, particularly for the break-even requirement that Milan violated. Often, the sanctions are part of a settlement agreement (which UEFA rejected for Milan), which include promises that the club will reach a certain break-even debt threshold for particular years, as well as employee benefit expenses. In addition, many restrictions have the condition that if certain measures are met, they go away the next season instead of the full duration of the sanction, which is normally three years.

2017:

• Paris Saint-Germain: cleared of wrong-doing by UEFA based on club sponsorship contracts for the years 2015-2017.
• Marseille: fined €100,000.
• Galatasaray: fined up to €15 million, as well as a limit on players that could be included in the first team of European competition, of 21 instead of 25. There was also a limit on the amount of new players it can register.
• Maccabi Tel Aviv: fined up to €1 million, with a limit of new players the club can register for UEFA competitions, and a limit on the number of players that could be in the first team of European competition.

2016:

• FC Porto: limit on the number of new players it can register for UEFA competitions until 2020, as well as a fine of up to 2.2 million euros. There was also a limit placed on the number of players that could be in the first team of European competition.

2015:

• Besiktas: fine of up to €5.5 million, a limit of players for the first team in UEFA competitions, and a limit on new registrations for UEFA competitions.
• Inter Milan: fine of up to €20 million, a limit of players for the first team in UEFA competitions, and a limit on new registrations for UEFA competitions.
• Krasnodar: fine of up to €4 million, a limit of players for the first team in UEFA competitions, and a limit on new registrations for UEFA competitions.
• Locomotiv Moskva: fine of up to €5 million, a limit of players for the first team in UEFA competitions, and a limit on new registrations for UEFA competitions.
• Monaco: fine of up to €13 million, a limit of players for the first team in UEFA competitions, and a limit on new registrations for UEFA competitions.
• AS Roma: fine of up to €6 million, a limit of players for the first team in UEFA competitions, and a limit on new registrations for UEFA competitions.
• Sporting Clube de Portugal: fine of up to €2 million, a limit of players for the first team in UEFA competitions.
• CSKA Sofia, Kardemir Karabükspor and FC Rostov were all fined €200,000.

As you can see, UEFA has dished out some punishments for failure to meet the break-even requirements before. However, none of these previous cases in the past few years have included a ban from European competition. That is a sanction more commonly found in the case of overdue payables, which is a different violation. The above sanctions were given in the midst of settlement agreements for clubs who were found to violate the break-even requirement, the same rule that Milan was cited for breaking.