Lille reaches agreement with UEFA on financial fair play

Pinned for failure to respect financial fair play, Lille football club LOSC has signed a settlement agreement with UEFA, which provides that € 9 million will be withdrawn from its possible income from European competitions, announced, Friday August 7, the European body.

Financial fair play (FPF) prohibits a club engaged in European competition from spending more than what it earns and tightly controls capital injections from owners.

The LOSC has signed a settlement agreement in which it pledges to reduce its deficit and return to balance at the end of the 2023-2024 season, UEFA said in a statement.

Before that, the club will have to reach a maximum deficit of 20 million euros at the end of the 2021 season and 10 million at the end of 2022.

The settlement agreement also provides that 9 million euros will be withheld from any European income from the northern club, qualified this season for the group stage of the Europa League.

In addition, from this season, Lille will only be able to field 22 players, against 25 normally authorized, on the list of players qualified for C3. This list will increase to 23 players the following season.

Punishments “Will continue to apply for the seasons 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 unless the club respects the accepted measures” with the financial policeman of UEFA.

In the event of non-compliance with the terms of the agreement, the club’s file may be sent to the adjudicatory chamber of the Club Financial Control Authority (ICFC) which has the power to sanction clubs.

Since the establishment of financial fair play, the financial policeman has concluded many settlement agreements with clubs, which have not always respected them.

Olympique de Marseille had thus concluded such an agreement but was sanctioned last June with a fine of 3 million euros for not having fully respected it, while in theory it risked exclusion from European competitions.

The OM file had been transmitted in March to the Judicial Chamber of the ICFC, because the OM had exceeded its negotiated deficit: the losses should not exceed 50 million euros in June 2019, they were 91 millions.