Tribal Football

UEFA hit Marseille with fine and squad restrictions for breaking financial rules

Marseille have been hit with a fine
Marseille have been hit with a fineREUTERS / Alexandre Dimou

French side Olympique de Marseille, who are set to ⁠compete in the Europa League in 2026/27, have been restricted from adding new ‌players to their 'list A' in the European competition after ‌a failure to comply with earnings targets, ‌UEFA said on Wednesday.

Marseille were one of ‌several clubs under a settlement agreement with UEFA's ‌Club Financial Control Body (CFCB), and needed to meet specific earnings targets.

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The 'list A' is a club's ‌main squad in a UEFA competition. ⁠They also have ‌a 'list B' comprising younger academy players. The ​manager can call up players from 'list B' on a match-by-match basis.

The Ligue 1 ​club "failed to comply with the football earnings rule in the 2025/26 season (i.e. covering the ⁠reporting periods ending ​in 2023, 2024 and 2025)," UEFA said in a statement.

If Marseille fail to comply with the football earnings target in 2026/27, they ‌will be banned from the next European competition they qualify for within the following three years, UEFA added.

Marseille were fined six million euros ($6.95 million) and received an additional penalty of four million euros for breaching the "squad cost rule", which prohibits teams from spending over 70% of their total football revenue ‌on player and coach wages, transfers and ​agent fees.

AS Roma were also fined two ‌million euros for breaching the squad cost rule.

"AC Milan, AS Monaco, Besiktas, Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Royal Antwerp and Trabzonspor met the final target of the ⁠settlement... and therefore ⁠exited the settlement ‌regime," UEFA added.

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