Financial fair play: UEFA keeps close eye on PSG

During the year 2022, the financial control body for clubs (ICFC) in charge of monitoring the application of UEFA’s financial fair play rules, had criticised Paris Saint-Germain for having exceeded the authorised deficit threshold of 30 million euros over 3 accounting periods. The club may indeed have recorded an overall deficit of around 370 million euros.

In August 2022 the first chamber of the ICFC had reached a settlement with Paris Saint-Germain and 5 other clubs (AC Milan, Besiktas, Juventus, AS Monaco, Olympique de Marseille), whereby Paris Saint-Germain agreed to pay a fine of €60 million, of which €40 million was suspended, and to gradually bring itself into compliance with the rules of financial fair play over a period of three years.

The club undertook to record a deficit of between €5 million and €60 million for the 2022-2023 season and to at least break even for the following two seasons.

It is specified that the club will only be able to reach a cumulative deficit of €60 million if it is covered by a capital or equity contribution.

In order to achieve this objective, PSG is the object of various reviews and has to meet intermediate financial targets.

Compliance with the settlement agreement is crucial for PSG, as if it exceeds the targets it risks:

• Being restricted on the number of players entered in the Champions League;
• Being banned from registering new players in the Champions League, i.e. a ban on the registration of new players to participate in the competition;
• Being excluded from European competitions for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 seasons.

In the event of a sanction, PSG will only be able to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which has exclusive jurisdiction over appeals against ICFC decisions.

However, according to the French newspaper L’Equipe, according to the documents in the possession of the ICFC, PSG should not be sanctioned this season.

According to figures provided by PSG to UEFA, the club is expected to record a turnover for the 2022-2023 season of more than 800 million euros. Deloitte, in its study “Football Money League”, indicates that the Parisian club may even be the fifth club in Europe in terms of turnover.

In any case, the French capital club will have to be vigilant during the m