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What's the story?
AC Milan will not participate in UEFA Europa League for the upcoming 2018/19 season as they have been withdrawn after reaching an agreement with UEFA over Financial Fair Play (FFP).
In case you didn't know...
Seven-time Champions League winners AC Milan qualified for the Europa League after finishing fifth in the Serie A with 68 points. Last summer, they were handed a two-year ban from European competitions for breaching the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.
The Serie A giants successfully appealed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) regarding their ban. But just after nine months, UEFA again sanctioned a ban due to MIlan's failure to balance the books in the three-year period.
The heart of the matter
On grounds of breaching the Financial Fair Play rules, Milan and UEFA agreed on the punishment that covers the phases 2014-17 and 2015-18. As a result, Torino are set replace Milan as Italy’s third team in the Europa League, with Roma directly qualifying to the group stages.
The statement from Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) read:
“The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has issued a Consent Award embodying the agreement reached between AC Milan S.p.A and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) concerning breaches of the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations by the Italian club.
i. The Decision rendered by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body in the case AC-05/2018 on 20 November 2018 (i.e. decision under appeal in the CAS 2018/A/6083 matter) is set aside.
ii. The Decision rendered by the Investigatory Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body on 10 April 2019 (i.e. decision under appeal in the CAS 2018/A/6261 matter) is set aside.
iii. The decisions referred to under item i) and ii) above are replaced by the following order: 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.
iv. 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.
v. The costs of the proceedings CAS 2018/A/6083 and CAS 2019/A/6261 shall be borne by AC Milan.
vi. Each Party shall bear its own costs.
vii. The CAS Award shall be made public.
What's next?
With a major upheaval of the San Siro in their plans, the compromise will allow Milan to become more financially stable when they eventually return.
Meanwhile, they will take on German giants Bayern Munich in the International Champions Cup on 24 July.
