AC Milan Banned From Europa League (See Reasons)

Italian giants, AC Milian has been removed from the number of clubs that will be competing for the 2019-20 Europa League competition for breaching UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.

Naija News understands that in April, Milan were reported by UEFA investigators over an alleged new breach of the break-even rule in its most recent monitoring period and the case was passed to its financial adjudicators.

Sport’s highest court CAS  while releasing his verdict on the breach of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules said the seven-times European champions finished fifth in Serie A last season to qualify for Europe’s second-tier competition will not take part in the continental competition during the upcoming campaign.

A statement from CAS read: “AC Milan is excluded from participating in the UEFA Club Competitions of the sporting season 2019/2020 as a consequence of the breach of its FFP break-even obligations during the 2015/2016/2017 and the 2016/2017/2018 monitoring periods.

“The Adjudicatory Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body is invited to issue a Procedural Order, acknowledging the outcome of the present arbitration(s) and terminating the AC-01/2019 proceedings relating to the 2016/2017/2018 monitoring period, which have become moot.”

UEFA said the referral was not connected to a previous case against Milan which saw the club banned and reprieved on appeal.

Milan were given a one-season suspension from European football in June last year after UEFA ruled that the club had not complied with FFP rules for the previous monitoring period.

Milan appealed to CAS which overturned the ban the following month, accepting the club’s argument that its finances had improved after an ownership change.