The Valmiera football club had qualified on sporting merits for the 2024/2025 UEFA Conference league through finishing 4th in the Latvian football Premier League (Virslīga), but has lost the opportunity through unfortunate development of events.
The Valmiera’s club has been in financial trouble during 2024 and was refused the licence for justified reasons. In their place, FK Liepāja will participate in the financially rewarding Eurocups.
What happended to Valmiera FC?
The football club is run under the limited liability company form, firm called SIA “Valmiera FC”.
During 2023 the company has had times of having tax debt more or less regularly (most of June 2023 has been debt-free, a few days in debt; Almost good July with only the last week in debt; remaining in red throughout the whole August 2023 before returning to green in September, just to loose it again in October). The company went into 2024 with a tax debt of 42’428.49 euro. By the 1st of March the debt had only grown (130’929.42 euro).
Matchday 1 on 10 March: tax liabilities growing, at 131k euro. As of 20 May, debt stands at 174k, already above 210k by the end of May. Tendency has been worsening.
Nevertheless, the club is 3rd in the standings of the Latvian Virslīga and had convinced certain players to join due to the UEFA competition access.
Simple as that, if a club does not pay taxes, they should not be allowed to participate in the UEFA competitions (which, due to rich bonuses, would enable the club to cover the debs incurred earlier).
Were there chances for appeal?
Although the club obtained the licence to play in the Virslīga with the significant tax debt, it was refused the UEFA licence which matter is decided separately.
So, how is this different.
The national licence passed through, what could go wrong with UEFA licence, right?!
The refusal for the UEFA licence, after having obtained the national LFF-A licence therefore, might not have seemed inevitable for the Valmiera FC management.
The press release for the licensing decision of 10 May 2024: https://lff.lv/zinas/17558/pieskirtas-licences-latvijas-klubu-dalibai-eirokausos/
A ray of light for Valmiera might have been the note of Auda FK also having unpaid debts. However, in the view of LFF, those were of a significantly smaller amount. Although the reasons and arguments of the 17 May 2024 Appeal were not published, it is likely that the appeal simply asked for another review of their case, without presenting sufficient grounds as on 22 May 2024 the Appeals Committe rejected the appeal.
The press release of the appeals outcome: https://lff.lv/zinas/17578/apelaciju-padome-negroza-lemumu-par-uefa-licences-nepieskirsanu-valmiera-fc/
Now Valmiera has the option to address their claim to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).
Mere technical reading of the regulations and the decision reveals very poor chances for the ambitious but under-financed club, with their best days in the past (champions in 2022, hopefully 2025 might be better luck):
- decision is based on para.62&65
- according to the quoted paras, the club has to demonstrate compliance with tax laws
The Latvian football has chronically suffered from clubs not covering their payments timely (or not at all), therefore the LFF regulations have been developed based on an extensive experience and practice in the field.
For debts over EUR 50 000 the regulations require denial of the licence, or revoke of it, if already issued.
Gadījumā, ja tiek konstatēts, ka UEFA vai LFF-A licences pretendentam pastāv nenokārtotas finansiālās saistības, pamatojoties uz Paragrāfiem 63-66 līdz 30 000 EUR apmērā, licences pretendentam var tikt piemērotas šī Paragrāfa p. 1 a) līdz d) minētās sankcijas, 30 000 – 50 000 EUR apmērā – šī Paragrāfa p. 1 e) minētā sankcija, virs 50 000 EUR – p. f) vai g) minētā sankcija.
With this in mind, technically Valmiera is in the risk area of being stripped of the national LFF-A licence, as well.
For clubs in the lower leagues, risk of losing licence starts from debts of EUR 25 000 already
Gadījumā, ja tiek konstatēts, ka LFF-B licences pretendentam pastāv nenokārtotas finansiālās saistības,
pamatojoties uz Paragrāfiem 63-66 līdz 15 000 EUR apmērā, licences pretendentam var tikt piemērotas
šī Paragrāfa p. 1 a) līdz d) minētās sankcijas, 15 000 – 25 000 EUR apmērā – šī Paragrāfa p. 1 e) minētā
sankcija, virs 25 000 EUR – p. f) vai g) minētā sankcija.
In other words, judging from the regulations perspective, Valmiera FC has very poor chances to succeed should they go to CAS.
Lost UEFA bonuses
The UEFA bonuses have been of significant aid to the Latvian clubs. As to the Valmiera, playing in the UEFA Conference league in Q1, would have guaranteed them EUR 150 000 – very decent income just for stepping on the field. Chances are, that good draw might enable qualification for a next round – EUR 350 000 for second round. With these numbers in mind, it might be useful for he club to still consider if there are arguments that CAS might hear… but are there any good arguments?!
Payments to clubs participating in the qualifying phases of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League
For each round played, each club will receive a fixed fee of €175k (subject to exceptions).
• All clubs eliminated during the qualification rounds will finish their run in the UECL, irrespective of the competition in which they started a qualification path. The amounts for the clubs eliminated in the UECL qualifying rounds or play-offs are as follows:
o UECL Q1: €150k
o UECL Q2: €350k
o UECL Q3: €550k
o UECL play-offs: €750k
• Each domestic champion club that does not qualify for the UCL, UEL or UECL league phase will receive €260k in addition to the above-mentioned amounts, as applicable
UEFA circular on the 2024/2025 prize money
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