In the aftermath of the defeat against Monaco (0-2), the troubles continue for Paris Saint-Germain. The club was sentenced to a fine of 700,000 euros “for delays in the payment of invoices from its suppliers”, the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF ).
It specifies on its website that this fine “relates to breaches committed during a period prior to the health emergency following the Covid-19 epidemic”.
Contacted by AFP, PSG explained that they “appealed against this decision, but the appeal is not suspensive”. “These are late payments dating back to the 2017-2018 season and dating from the period from January to June 2018”, specifies the club.
One of the heaviest fines imposed
The amount of the penalty imposed on the Parisian football club is among the heaviest awarded for late payment by the DGCCRF. Since the Transparency Law of 2016, the ceiling for fines for late payment has been raised from 375,000 to 2 million euros. Only four fines imposed in this regard in 2020 amounted to more than 700,000 euros.
The non-respect of payment deadlines was responsible before the health crisis of one in four SME bankruptcies in France, according to the national inter-company mediator Pierre Pelouzet, cited in a report from the Terra Nova think tank at the end of 2019.
With a budget of around 600 million euros, the club, after its stint in December before the DNCG (National Directorate of Control and Management), expects a shortfall of between 200 and 300 million euros for the current season, weighed down by the sanitary closed doors imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and by the failure of the broadcaster Mediapro, which has reduced the windfall of TV rights by half. In 2019-2020, a season truncated by the coronavirus, the losses amounted to 124 million euros.
Article original de: www.leparisien.fr
