AC Milan banned from Uefa Europa League for FFP breach, CAS confirms

AC Milan have been removed from the 2019-20 Europa League season for breaching Uefa's Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirmed on Friday.

CAS consented to Milan's voluntary decision to remove themselves from next season's competition to pay for FFP breaches.

Uefa had already fined Milan 12 million euros (£10.77m) of Europa League prize money in the case, which included a CAS ruling to overturn a ban from last season's Europa League.

Milan hope that this wipes the slate clean ahead of ongoing monitoring of their often troubled finances.

"AC Milan is excluded from participating in the Uefa club competitions of the sporting season 2019/2020 as a consequence of the breach of its FFP break-even obligations during the 2015/2016/2017 and the 2016/2017/2018 monitoring periods," CAS said in a statement.

CAS says it will invite Uefa's cub financial control body "to issue a procedural order acknowledging the outcome of the present arbitration(s) and terminating the proceedings relating to the 2016/2017/2018 monitoring period, which have become moot."

Although Italian giants Milan are seven-time European champions, their finances have taken a hit during a six-year failure to qualify for the Champions League.

Additional reporting by Reuters and the Associated Press.