Uefa set to relax financial fair play rules that led to Manchester City fine

Posted Tuesday, May 19, 2015 by theguardian.com

· Move aims to head off more than 10 legal challenges
· Michel Platini promises: ‘I think we’ll ease things’
· Manchester City accept £49m fine and transfer cap

Uefa set to relax financial fair play rules that led to Manchester City fine
Manchester City had their big spending in the transfer market curbed by Uefa.

Five years after promising to usher in a new era of prudence for European football the Uefa president, Michel Platini, is poised to relax its financial fair play regulations after conceding they risk impeding the game’s growth.

After Platini revealed the likely changes, Uefa’s general secretary, Gianni Infantino, hurried to clarify that the proposed new rules would "encourage more growth, more competition and market stimulation while strengthening the emphasis on controlling spending and safeguarding financial stability".

In practice, that is likely to mean that club owners will be able to invest more of their own money over a three- to-five-year period as long as they can demonstrate that revenues will grow over that time to allow them to eventually break even.

It follows concerns that the rules as they stand are likely to lock in the dominance of those sides with the biggest commercial, matchday and broadcasting revenues and remove the impetus for new owners outside that to buy into clubs.

The changes are likely to provoke mixed feelings at the Etihad Stadium and the Parc des Princes after Uefa last season hit Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain with potential fines of up to £49m each together with squad restrictions.

In 2009, Platini argued that owners including Roman Abramovich at Chelsea and Massimo Moratti at Internazionale had pleaded with him to bring in new rules to force clubs to break even. “They do not want to fork out any more,” said Platini at the time. But while overall net losses across Europe have plummeted from €1.7bn (£1.23bn) in 2011 to €400m in 2014, critics argue that the system has disproportionately benefited the established order and allows the likes of Manchester United, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich to get ever stronger while preventing new challengers from emerging. Under the existing rules, the amount of leeway allowed to each club over a three-year reporting period was due to reduce from €45m to zero.

If clubs failed to stay within those limits, they were at risk of a range of penalties up to and including expulsion from European competition. The changes to the rules – described by Uefa sources as a shift from austerity to growth – will be seen by many as a tacit admission that they were too draconian and a victory for club owners who have been lobbying for the ability to invest their own money in the first team as well as the infrastructure.

Uefa insiders were keen to stress that the rules were an “evolution rather than a revolution” and would seek to balance sustainability with the need to grow the game and attract new investors.

"The world is two-faced but we will say this openly: I think we’ll ease things, but it will be the executive committee who will decide if it is to be eased or something like that, and the outcome will be known by the end of June,” said Platini in an interview with French radio station RTL.

"I think the regulations have been very good and it is the clubs who voted for FFP. But the French press say it is not right that Abramovich can buy many players and in France they cannot buy them. But if the Qataris had bought AC Milan the French would also say we should make financial fair play even tougher. As it is, the Italians wanted it eased.”

Uefa is facing at least 10 separate legal challenges over FFP. Jean-Louis Dupont, the lawyer leading the cases, welcomed the potential changes.

Ironically, given the support of the then owners of the two Milan clubs for the introduction of FFP it is understood they have been among the most active in lobbying for the rules to be relaxed. It is understood that the European Clubs Association has been consulted over the changes but they still need to be put before the Uefa club licensing committee early next month and voted on by the executive committee on 29 and 30 June. Any changes could be introduced as early as next season.

In the wake of the introduction of Uefa’s rules in 2011/12, the Premier League and the Football League also brought in their own cost control regulations. “Financial fair play has proved successful in achieving considerable improvement in the financial health of European football in a short period of time,” said Infantino. “Regular review of the Uefa financial fair play regulations is vital in ensuring that they keep pace with the ever-changing football environment and the new challenges that this often poses.”