There is news today that both Manchester City and Paris Saint Germain have not met the Financial Fair Play rules over the last three seasons, and therefore will be given some punishment, to be handed out by UEFA President Michel Platini in the not too distant future.
Michel Platini – should be tougher with club flaunting FFP rules
The Financial Fair Play Rules were introduced a few years ago simply because big money was starting to ruin football, and when clubs like Manchester City were bought by Billionaires, City were allowed to spend £1B gross on players since 2008, and there’s something wrong with that somehow.
And it was supposed to be a surprise when they won the Premier League two years ago?
If a smaller club – maybe Peterborough – had been able to spend £1B on players since 2008, we dare say they would have become Premier League Champions too.
Chelsea were probably the first club who started to buy their team with almost unlimited finances and no controls of their spending, when Russian Billionaire Romain Abramovich bought the club back in 2003 and in that summer brought in a full team of top world players to play for Chelsea.
One other main reason for introduction of the FFP rules was to try to keep competition in the game of football, but even the Financial Fair Play Rules will have a hard job doing that.
And that’s because eventually the rules say that clubs must break even, and they can only spend the money they bring in – but the big clubs will continue to spend more money – because they bring more money in.
What’s that about the rich get richer?
Over the last couple of financial years, Manchester City have lost £98M and £52M, and they are now likely to have to accept a salary cap and a large fine for breaking Financial Fair Play rules.
But UEFA President Michel Platini said initially that if clubs competing in Europe didn’t abide by the rules, they would simply be banned from European competition – so why are both Man City and PSG being allowed to continue playing in Europe next season?
The restriction to the City wage bill will only apply to the players who play in Europe, but that could cause them to be unable to use some of their best players in the competition – but an outright ban for a year would be a much better deterrent, and put an end to the abuse more quickly.
And City’s transfer fees this season are at £91.8M, according to web-site transfermarkt.com, so that doesn’t sound good – given that the allowed loss for the next financial year through June 30th, is going to be £25M.
And it should come as no surprise that Paris St-Germain have also not met the FFP rules, and they too could be hit with a salary cap and a fine.
And in fact all clubs competing in Europe who have lost more than £37M in each of the last three seasons will have failed to meet the FFP requirements, and will be subject to fines and/or other disciplinary actions.
Sky Sports are reporting that fewer than 20 clubs are still under active investigation, and could still face sanctions that ensure dramatic financial losses are no longer posted.
Manchester City and PSG are thought to be the two most prominent European clubs who have missed the targets the most over the last three seasons.
What do you think about this?
Comments welcome.
42 comments so far
toonking
May 1, 2014 at 3:03 PM
Comment #41lesh 40
to be honest i think it’s the fear of them all breaking away and forming a super league that has got uefa mos concerned.
also i think another reason they giving in to these mega teams is a CL without the super star would not attract anywhere near as much public interest, just think real madrid vs athletico madrid or southampton vs celtic. so the money from advertisement will drop massively.
catchy in norway
May 1, 2014 at 3:07 PM
Comment #42spoof / toonking
I don’t see lack of ability , I still think we have a much better team than it shows right now,
we have a manager who instills his football into our players , defend defend defend, they look bad because most are not defensive minded , goofy is shocking in his roll under pardew , just like jonas , you can see week after week him getting worse and worse ,
I don’t understand why everyone bigs Williamson up, he is beyond poor, the rest of our squad have sank to his and Pardews level,
shola , I have never liked him, but under every other manager he would chip in 6-10 goals a season, under pardew , 1 every year and a half,
our defenders used to chip in with goals, Williamson is 6-5 , he can not head a ball , sure he can get his head on the ball , but it’s not the same,
we don’t look like we train with any goals in mind, they must play bags , or one bounce ( maybe there that bad it’s 2 bounce)
grrrrr