Primeira Liga Sporting Lisbon, a "money-losing" football club that is seeking investors, said that its business negotiations "may have been affected" after UEFA froze its prize money, according to Alex Duff of BLOOMBERG. UEFA said Tuesday that Sporting Lisbon is among 23 teams to have prize money withheld after investigators identified “important” overdue payments to other clubs, employees or tax authorities. Sporting Lisbon "hasn’t missed any payment deadlines," and UEFA should rectify its comments as soon as possible “to avoid bigger damage” to its business (BLOOMBERG, 9/13). REUTERS' Daniel Alvarenga reported that Sporting Lisbon blamed miscommunication over a "minor" payment delay to other clubs. Club Financial VP Jose Guedes said that they "did not understand why UEFA's announcement came before the Oct. 14 deadline" for teams to comply with the new fair play rules. Sporting Lisbon added that there was a minor issue with payments to other clubs, but that there were "no salary delays" and that taxes and social security payments "were in order" (REUTERS, 9/13).
