uefa

FC Barcelona paid €7 million to former referees official and could be charged with potential continuous corruption

Advocate General's opinion says FIFA and UEFA rules requiring authorisation for new competitions are compatible with EU law

Player contributed to achieving treble, including team's first Champions League

As debts and fan fury mount, new president says it's “absolutely necessary” that big clubs have say on distribution of wealth

The Catalan’s comments go against the position of his club, Manchester City, as one of the founding members of the competition

Proposal for elite breakaway competition criticized as “selfish” as UEFA threatens strong punishments

Girona's 'Temps de flors' floral displays postponed, as are Berga's 'La Patum' festivities

Yellow balloons thrown onto pitch  during Champion’s League game against AS Roma

The dispute between Barça and UEFA over the display of Catalan independence flags, ‘estelades’, at the Camp Nou is definitely on track to reach a solution. The international body announced an agreement with FC Barcelona to end this litigation. The pact means that Barça will drop its appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) over the economic sanctions imposed on the club, while UEFA compromises to establish a working group “involving both clubs and national associations to review the disciplinary framework” that nowadays prevents the display of political symbols in stadiums. The conflict began in the Champions League final in Berlin last year when a Ukrainian UEFA delegate, Anna Bordiugova, who was not in the Olympic Stadium, denounced the exhibition of 'estelades' after watching the game on television.

The Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Òmnium Cultural, the Platform Pro Catalan Sports Selections and the group of jurists ‘Drets’ (‘Rights’) will distribute 30,000 Catalan pro-independence flags at the Champions League match between FC Barcelona and Celtic FC taking place this Tuesday at Camp Nou. The initiative comes after UEFA’s €30,000 fine of FC Barcelona for the displaying of these flags during the Champions League final in Berlin last year. According to the Union of European Football Associations, the fine was issued because it officially condemns in Article 16.2 of its Disciplinary Regulations "the use of gestures, words, objects or any other means to transmit any message that is not fit for a sports event, particularly messages that are of a political, ideological, religious, offensive or provocative nature". 

The FC Barcelona vice president, Jordi Mestres assured that the Club "is not happy at all" with the UEFA sanction for the presence of Catalan Independence flags at Camp Nou during the Champions League game against Bayer Leverkusen. "We will never tell our members and fans to not express their opinion" Mestre commented to the media. "We will appeal against the decision, and if necessary, we will take legal advice" stated Mestres, at his arrival in Minsk this Tuesday, where FC Barcelona has a duel against BATE Borisov. This is not the first time that UEFA fines FC Barcelona for showing pro-independence flags during a match; at the Champions League final on the 6 June the club was sanctioned for the same reason.

Pedro Rodríguez scored FC Barcelona’s fifth goal of the evening in the 115th minute as Champions League titleholders FC Barcelona hung on late in an exhilarating 5–4 extra-time triumph over a newly revamped Sevilla, the winners of last year’s Europa League, in the 2015 UEFA Super Cup Final on Tuesday night in Tbilisi, Georgia. Lionel Messi scored two free kick goals in the first half to erase an early 1–0 deficit and Rafinha, filling in superbly for the absent Neymar, started and scored to put Barça up 3–1 a minute before halftime. Messi was named man of the match. "We are delighted to start the season with this win, but it was tough," he said following the game. Only two more titles — this month’s Spanish Super Cup and this fall’s FIFA Club World Cup — stand between the Catalans and an unprecedented second sextuple. It is also FC Barcelona’s fifth UEFA Super Cup title, tying them with AC Milan for tops all-time.

UEFA's Disciplinary Committee has decided to issue FC Barcelona, the current champions of Europe, with a €30,000 fine due to the Catalan independence flags displayed and the songs sung by its supporters during May's Champions League final in Berlin. Despite UEFA representatives present at the final having praised the "excellent behaviour" of the Catalan supporters during the game in their official report, the Disciplinary Committee acted after a complaint was filed at a later stage by a Ukrainian lawyer based on the TV broadcast. UEFA condemns "the use of gestures, words […] to transmit any message that is not fit for a sports event, particularly messages that are of a political, ideological, religious, offensive or provocative nature" in its Disciplinary Regulations.