European football governing body UEFA has rejected the Spanish champion, Barcelona appeal and upheld a 500,000 euro fine, $537,000 on the club on Friday for a breach of their financial control rules.
UEFA’s club financial control body stated this in a statement on Friday that the Catalan club wrongly reported profits “on the disposal of intangible assets” in the financial year 2022.
Barcelona were initially fined by UEFA in July but appealed against it.
The La Liga club have had deep economic problems in recent years, in 2022, Barcelona sold 25 per cent of their domestic television rights for the next 25 years to global investment firm Sixth Street. Sixth Street said the purchase of the first 10 per cent of those rights in June last year was worth €267million to the club.
Barcelona sold off a substantial chunk of future television rights income to keep buying and registering players in the short term.
Reports revealed that the club are also the subject of a separate UEFA investigation into allegations they made payments to a former vice-president of Spain’s referees’ committee.
It was reported in February that the club paid companies owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira €7million between 2001 and 2018.
Negreira was the vice-president of the Spanish football federation’s refereeing committee from 1993 to 2018.
Barcelona have denied any wrongdoing, with club president Joan Laporta saying earlier this year: “Barca have never bought referees nor influence.
“That was never the intention and that has to be clear. The facts contradict those that are trying to tell a different story.”
