Barcelona takes Zenit to court over $525K bonus over Malcom's transfer

Barcelona is taking Zenit St. Petersburg to sport’s highest court in pursuit of a bonus payment it missed out on after the Russian club was banned from the Champions League.

Barcelona claims it is owed $525,000 from Zenit because of a clause in the transfer deal that saw Brazil winger Malcom join the Russian club in 2019.

That deal required Zenit to pay Barcelona 490,000 euros ($525,000) each time it qualified for the Champions League group stage in a season where Malcom had played in at least half its domestic league games.

But FIFA ruled last year that Zenit didn’t have to pay that money after it was excluded from the 2022-23 Champions League season as part of a UEFA ban on Russian clubs, even though it had won the domestic league title to qualify for the competition.