UEFA hand out one-year ban to Galatasaray for overspending

Sport360 staff 20:20 02/03/2016
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  • Galatasaray did not cut back on spending.

    A UEFA tribunal ordered the ban after Galatasaray “failed to comply with the terms of the settlement agreement” made with the European confederation in May 2014, said a statement.

    Galatasaray have spent heavily in recent years to buy the likes of Germany’s World Cup winner Lukas Podolski and Dutch star Wesley Sneijder. They have also been ordered to cut back on wages but the club was relieved only to get a one-year ban.

    UEFA referred the case to its financial control adjudicatory chamber in January after Galatasaray did not balance its budget for the 2015-2016 season as promised.

    Turkish reports said Galatasaray had promised to restrict losses to 30 million euros over a three-year period but the final figure was 160 million euros.

    UEFA said Galatasary would be banned from European competition for the next season it qualifies in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons.

    “The Turkish club has also been ordered to limit the overall aggregate cost of employee benefits expenses of all of its players in each of the next two reporting periods” for 2016 and 2017, UEFA said.

    Galatasaray, who failed to get beyond the Champions League group stage this season and went out of the Europa League to Lazio last week, said it hoped to be back in European competition after one year.

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