Financial difficulties will keep Paris Volley out of the French league playoffs by order of the French Commission. The March 3 decision comes less than a month after the team’s finances were audited and despite the fact that the team sits near the top of the league standings.
The audit apparently showed a $460,000 euro difference between the declared payroll of the team and the payroll added up by the CACCP. Paris Volley president Michel Rougeyron called it a “bookkeeping problem” and said the club would appeal the decision to suspend the team from the playoffs.
Paris Volley has a one-week window to appeal the playoff exclusion to the highest DNACG council.
With the decision on an appeal looming, volleyball.it claims there is a chance the playoffs could be pushed back to a March 31 start.
The CACCP also deemed that in addition to the exclusion from the playoffs, the team will be administratively expelled from the league and relegated to the lower league at the end of the season. The team also has been banned from recruiting new players.
The relegation sanction will be reviewed by CACCP in June.
Paris Volley is one of the most successful French clubs, having won the league’s gold medal nine times and reached the medal round in 12 of the last 17 years. The club currently ranks third in Ligue A standings with 39 points, behind Tours and Chaumont. This stunning turn comes less than a month after rumors swirled that the club was making to make a big splash into the transfer market with names like Earvin Ngapeht, Lucao, or Bruninho.
Cut from the playoffs and relegated? That is rough….but if there were indeed financial corruption within the team, the league is better off without it