FC Barcelona has lost a court case that would have resulted in a payment from Zenit St. Petersburg of almost half a million euro.
Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed an appeal against a FIFA ruling last year in a dispute over the transfer of Malcom to the Russian club.
Zenit bought him in 2019 and agreed to pay 490,000 euros every time it qualified for the UEFA Champions League in a season where Malcom played at least half the domestic league games.
Zenit won the Russian league title in the 2021-22 season, which would’ve normally qualified them for the Champions League. However, UEFA banned them and all Russian teams from playing in UEFA competitions due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
FIFA ruled that Zenit did not have to pay the bonus since they were never granted Champions League qualification bonuses themselves, so they could not share part of it with Barcelona. It was also ruled that the Russian club was not responsible for the invasion and thus was not responsible for its inability to play in UEFA’s premier club competition.
Zenit then sold Malcom to Al Hilal, a Saudi club, for 60 million.
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