La Liga and FC Barcelona have been at odds over the former’s Financial Fair Play guidelines for some time now. The Blaugrana have been told to decrease their pay cost by €200 million before the summer transfer window to sign and register new players. Gavi’s registration as a first-team player has also been halted due to FFP issues. While these are topics for the future summer, La Liga has already fined Barcelona for the prior fiscal year of 2021/22.
Barcelona wins Christensen FFP appeal, avoids €216,000 La Liga punishment
Indeed, as reported earlier this year, La Liga fined the Catalans €800,000 for FFP violations in three cases: the signings of Dani Alves and Andreas Christensen and the contract renewal of Ronald Araujo. Barcelona quickly chose to appeal all three charges to the RFEF second-instance committee, and according to an ARA report, the Catalans have won one of their three challenges.
According to the article, Barcelona’s appeal against the allegations in the Christensen case was upheld, meaning they no longer have to pay the €216,000 fee associated with the charges against the Danish international. La Liga fined Barça for FFP violations over Christensen’s wage throughout the 2021/2022 season, even though his signing was completed legally only on July 4, 2022, after the new fiscal year had already begun.
However, the league claimed that Christensen’s signing was completed months before the formal announcement and that he was thus considered a member of Barcelona’s workforce for the 2021/22 fiscal year. However, La Liga’s case was dismissed, and Barcelona’s appeal in the Christensen case was upheld because the league’s laws on such cases are unclear.
As a result of the legal principle of ‘in dubio, pro re (in doubt, always in favor of the accused), Barcelona has won the appeal and will not have to pay the €216,000 fine in the Christensen case. Decisions on Alves’ signing and Araujo’s renewal are still pending.
