Italian Club, AC Milan, banned from Europa League for one year

Italian Club, AC Milan, banned from Europa League for one year. Their place in Europa will go to AS Roma and Torino will now play the qualifying rounds.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has announced that AC Milan have been banned from Europa League for one year and will not participate in the 2019-20 Europa League for breaching the governing body’s financial fair play rules

The CAS wrote:

“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.”

Not the first time

UEFA had given Milan a two-year FFP ban last summer. The club though, successfully appealed against that sanction. Unfortunately for the Rossoneri, they were referred to CAS once again in April.

The Financial Fair Play rules demand clubs not to burden themselves with losses of more than 30 million euros (£27m) over three seasons. They urge clubs to balance the books. The CAS believe that Milan have breached this rule between 2015 and 2017 when they spent £200m on transfers; With even more spending in 2018.

Milan managed to convince the CAS that their finances would improve under new ownership. They them participated in last years competition only to be knocked out in the group stage.

AC Milan placed 5^th this season. A single point behind city rivals Inter, who took the 4^th spot and the last Champions League place. They will now be replaced by Roma in the Group stages while Torino takes Roma’s place in the qualifying rounds.

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