PSG, Nike fined €5.5m for undeclared player payments

A French court on Tuesday fined football club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and sports giant Nike more than five million euros after finding them guilty of failing to declare the players' salary top-ups.

The PSG and Nike were ordered to pay 5.5 million euros ($6.2 million) in damages and interests to Urssaf, the French organisation that collects social security contributions.

The two were accused of having given under-the-table payments to players in order to avoid taxes between 2000 and 2005, in breach of the country's labour laws.

Players who benefited from the payments included former France international Nicolas Anelka and Brazil's Ronaldinho.

The long-running case had already seen Laurent Perpere, who headed up the PSG between 1998 and 2003, given a ten-month suspended sentence and a 30,000-euro fine in 2013.

His successor Francis Graille was also handed down a six-month suspended sentence and a 15,000-euro fine.

Source: AFP