UEFA on Friday, punished 11 clubs, including Slovenian club Olimpija Ljubljana, for breaking financial monitoring rules.
Six of the clubs, including Olimpija Ljubljana and Romanian champion Cluj, were threatened with a one-year ban from the next European competition they qualify for through 2027.
They have probationary periods of one or two years with financial targets to meet, according to UEFA’s statement.
Olimpija was fined €100,000 by a UEFA-appointed investigation panel for late or non-payment of wages, transfer fees, or social taxes. The fine is the second for Olimpija under UEFA rules formerly called “Financial Fair Play” since Aleksander Čeferin left the club’s executive committee 12 years ago.
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UEFA evaluated more than 200 clubs that qualified to play in the three UEFA competitions this season three times since July. The biggest financial penalties were imposed on Croatian clubs Osijek and Rijeka, whose overdue payables dated to last season, putting them in breach of mandatory licenses granted by national federations for teams to play in UEFA competitions.
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UEFA said both clubs were stripped of their €450,000 prize money from playing in the Europa Conference League this season.
The biggest fine for overdue debts was €250,000 imposed on Cluj, which played in the Champions League qualifying rounds this season and reached the Europa Conference League knockout playoffs, losing last week to Lazio. Other fines ranged from €150,000 to €10,000 for Aris Thessaloniki, Astana, Borac Banja Luka, Floriana, Konyaspor, Kyzyl-Zhar SK Petropavlosk, Osijek, and Valmiera.
The panel assessing clubs’ finances for UEFA is chaired by Sunil Gulati, the former U.S. Soccer Federation president who is an economics lecturer at Columbia University. Gulati and Čeferin were colleagues on the FIFA Council from 2016-21.
The Slovenian club earned €350,000 in UEFA prize money playing in the qualifying rounds of the third-tier Europa Conference League this season.
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