Greek giants Panathinaikos have been banned from European competition for three years by UEFA for failing to pay their debts, European football’s governing body announced on Tuesday.
The club were handed a suspended sentence in December and given until March 1 to settle their unpaid bills, but failed to do so and have been fined 100,000 euros ($122,398), having also been ordered to pay the same amount in December.
They appeared unlikely to qualify for Europe next season anyway, though, sitting seventh in the Greek top flight.
Panathinaikos players went on strike earlier this month over unpaid wages, and had also been hit with a three-point deduction by the Greek Super League over outstanding debts owed to former defender Jens Wemmer.
Owner Yiannis Alafouzos agreed to sell the club to an Asian investment group on Saturday.
The 20-time Greek champions have a rich heritage in Europe, having lost the 1971 European Cup final to Ajax before semi-final defeats by Liverpool in 1985 and Ajax in 1996.
Earlier this season, they were beaten by Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League playoff round.
Greek football has been plagued by controversy this season, with several high-profile incidents.
PAOK president Ivan Savvidis was banned for three years last month after invading the pitch with a gun during a game against title rivals AEK Athens, while former Olympiakos coach Oscar Garcia was hit by a cashier’s roll thrown by a PAOK fan during a match in February.
The Spaniard later resigned after Olympiakos president Evangelos Marinakis fined and exiled first-team players over perceived bad results. afp
UEFA Press Release
CFCB Adjudicatory Chamber renders Panathinaikos FC decision
Tuesday 24 April 2018
On 12 December 2017, the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Club Financial Control Body (CFCB), chaired by José Narciso da Cunha Rodrigues, took a decision in the case of the club Panathinaikos FC (GRE) regarding overdue payables.
The Adjudicatory Chamber confirmed that Panathinaikos FC had breached the overdue payables requirement of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations and decided to exclude Panathinaikos FC from participating in the next UEFA club competition for which it would otherwise qualify in the next three (3) seasons (i.e. 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons), unless by 1 March 2018 the club was able to prove having paid the amounts or concluded an agreement with the creditors with regard to the amounts that were identified as overdue payables as at 30 September 2017.
The Adjudicatory Chamber also imposed a fine of €200,000, from which €100,000 was suspended and would only fall due, in case the club was not able to fulfil the aforementioned condition.
On 19 March 2018, the CFCB Investigatory Chamber conducted an examination and concluded that Panathinaikos FC did not satisfy the established condition.
As a consequence, the Adjudicatory Chamber ordered that the exclusion provided in the decision of 12 December 2017 shall take effect immediately and confirmed that Panathinaikos FC is excluded from participating in the next UEFA club competition for which it would otherwise qualify in the next three (3) seasons (i.e. the 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons). The Adjudicatory Chamber also ordered that the amount of €100,000 as part of the total fine of €200,000 is no longer suspended and is due immediately.
