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UEFA’s requirement for football clubs to balance their books. The rules also specify that clubs keep up-to-date with their taxes, their transfer fees and pay player wages on time.
Manchester City are not to be the subject of a special investigation under Uefa financial fair play rules unlike Paris Saint-Germain. In an unusual intervention, Javier Tebas, the president of La Liga complained that City were ‘irreparably damaging the football industry’ by creating an inflationary spiral. His intervention had the backing of Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Uefa has launched a formal investigation into whether Paris Saint-Germain has breached financial fair play rules following ‘recent transfer activity’. There has been concern that the effectively state-owned super club has taken financial competition in European football on to a new level.
There are indications that Uefra president Aleksander Ceferin is inclined to take a harder line on such matters than his predecessor Michel Platini.
Uefa is becoming increasingly concerned about competitive imbalance in European football with the emergence of super clubs, state surrogates in the case of Paris Saint-Germain. They think that a situation in which only a small number of clubs could win the Champions League could reduce the appeal of the game and hence broadcast income.
Premier League clubs have long been frustrated at their lack of success in the Champions League, falling foul of the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Athletico Madrid, Bayern Munich etc. Now they have another super club to contend with in the shape of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). Up to now there has been a tendency to dismiss what has been happening in France and it has to be admitted that the league as a whole is not that strong.
Brighton chairman, poker player and chartered accountant Tony Bloom has increased his loan to the club to £170m. Getting a club into the Premier League and keeping them there is not a cheap hobby. The Bloom family has been involved with the club for about 50 years.
The Seagulls made a loss of £25.9m in the 2015-16 season. Similar figures are expected this season and covering those losses will push his investment towards £200m.
Sports lawyer Daniel Geey discusses how the signing of Neymar by Paris Saint-Germain relates to financial fair play (FFP) rules.
The FFP rules were revised in 2015, so clubs must show that they do not have losses of more than €30m over a three year period, although spending on stadiums and youth development are exempted. Javier Tebas, La Liga president, believes the Neymar deal would breach FFP.
Paris Saint-Germain are expected to formalise their bid to sign Neymar in a deal worth more than £500m this week. It would place him on a par with Lionel Messi as the best paid footballer on an annual salary of £55m. Neymar’s father should be able to take eight figure commissions on the transaction.
The combined worth of European football’s leading clubs grew by about €3bn over the past year, boosted by the escalating value of broadcasting deals. According to KPMG, the combined enterprise value of Europe’s 32 richest sides was close to €30bn in 2016, a rise of 14 per cent from the previous year.
The list is dominated by Premier League clubs and is topped by Manchester United, which became the first club to be valued at more than €3bn. Six other English clubs are among the 10 most valuable in Europe.
A decision is at last near on whether QPR breached financial fair play regulations in winning promotion to the Premier League three years ago. The dispute with the Football League will be heard by an arbitration panel made up of three QCs at a hearing next week.
Manchester City have been named as one of nine European super clubs by Uefa. While the recognition is welcome, it could store up problems for the future. Uefa may decide to target these clubs with new financial fair play (FFP) measures.