Manchester United fined €300,000 by UEFA for breaching strict Financial Fair Play rules imposed on club

Manchester United have been struck with a €300,000 (£256,785) fine by UEFA after being penalised for minor Financial Fair Play (FFP) breaches.

The fine covers a four-year period where breaches were committed between 2019 and 2022.

UEFA labelled United’s activity as “a minor break-even deficit” during the financial years in question.

Manager Erik ten Hag will have to make do with a restricted summer transfer budget, a result of club chiefs attempting to stay within the FFP guidelines.

In a statement, UEFA said: “During the 2022/23 season the CFCB First Chamber, chaired by Sunil Gulati, concluded the assessment of the break-even requirement covering the financial years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

“This is the last time the CFCB assessed the clubs on the basis of the ‘old’ Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play regulations, Edition 2018. Manchester United FC (ENG), Konyaspor (TUR) and APOEL FC (CYP) reported minor break-even deficits.

“These clubs were fined respectively with €300,000, €100,000 and €100,000.”

United’s most recent financial results were positive, with an 11 per cent rise in revenue published last month – up to £170million for the three months ending March 31.

Also included in the report was a projection of record full-year revenues reaching sums of up to £640 million.

The club is currently going through a phase of transition, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani battling to acquire the club from current owners, the Glazer family.

United have since issued a statement insisting that the summer spending will not be affected and that the fine is in relation to historic issues and previous FFP rules.

“While disappointed by the outcome, Manchester United accepts this fine for what Uefa acknowledges to be a minor technical breach of its previous financial fair play rules,” the statement read

“This reflected a change in the way that Uefa adjusted for Covid-19 losses during the 2022 reporting period, which allowed us to recognise only €15m of the €281m of revenues lost due to the pandemic within the FFP calculation.

“Post-pandemic, the club’s revenues have recovered strongly and are forecast to reach a record level in the current financial year. The club continues to support the enforcement of rules to promote financial fair play and sustainability across domestic and European football.”

United’s stance is that they were penalised because of unforeseen changes in how UEFA treat the losses and were unable to adjust for €47m of Covid losses during the 2022 monitoring period.

The club recently secured their first summer signing when Mason Mount arrived from Chelsea in a deal worth up to £60m, and the club are reportedly closing in on the signing of Inter Milan goalkeeper Andre Onana following David De Gea’s departure after 12 years at the club.

Barcelona, Istanbul Basaksehir and RSC Anderlecht were also among the clubs fined by UEFA.