Galatasaray hit with European ban for FFP breach

Turkish champions Galatasaray have been handed a ban from European club competitions by Uefa following their breach of financial fair play regulations.

The Istanbul side, who are currently fifth in their domestic league and have Wesley Sneijder and Lukas Podolski in their squad, will be excluded from featuring in the next continental competitions they qualify for over the next two seasons.

Their case was referred to Uefa’s adjudicatory chamber in January after they were found to have failed to have met the governing body’s break-even requirements for the 2015-16 season.

And Uefa have now meted out their punishment to Gala, who were eliminated from this season’s Champions League at the group stage and then bowed out of the Europa League last month.

A statement on Wednesday read: “The Adjudicatory Chamber of the Uefa Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) today announced that Galatasaray AS will be excluded from participating in the next Uefa club competition for which they would otherwise qualify in the next two seasons (i.e. the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons).

“This decision was taken after Galatasaray failed to comply with the terms of the settlement agreement that it entered with the CFCB chief investigator in May 2014 under Article 15 of the procedural rules governing the Uefa CFCB.

“The Turkish club has also been ordered to limit the overall aggregate cost of the employee benefits expenses of all its players in each of the next two reporting periods (i.e. the reporting period ending in 2016 and the reporting period ending in 2017).”