In a recent issue, The Economist confidently asserted, ‘the days of clubs living beyond their means are coming to [an] end. From this season, premier league clubs will be found by two sets of “financial fair play” rules’. The Economist never makes any judgment that it is not a confident assertion, but the reality is more complex than this throwaway line would suggest.
In a recent issue, The Economist confidently asserted, ‘the days of clubs living beyond their means are coming to [an] end. From this season, premier league clubs will be found by two sets of “financial fair play” rules’. The Economist never makes any judgment that it is not a confident assertion, but the reality is more complex than this throwaway line would suggest.
The financial fair play rules are going to face a legal obstacle course and the devil will be in the detail of implementation and enforcement. Neverthless, many clubs such as Brighton and Hove Albion are basing their strategies on effective enforcement. Probably the domestic rules have a better chance of surviving relatively unscathed than those of Uefa, if only because it is the less wealthy clubs that may lose out..
In eight months’ time Uefa will have to decide whch clubs are not complying with the break even requirement. Having done that, it will have to decide what punishment to apply: a warning, a fine or exclusion from the Champions League. What has never been stated is which punishment will apply for which level of infraction. Of course, it is in Uefa’s interest to keep everyone guessing in the hope that clubs will err on the side of financial caution.
As Gabriele Marcotti pointed out in The Times a couple of week ago, if you are Paris Saint-Germain and you are fined £1 for every £1 you go over the threshold, you might decide it’s worth it. But if Uefa starts to throw leading clubs out of the Champions League, it will certainly be challenged in court and, even if it wins, the value of its cash cow will be diminished.
Equally, if it is not stringent in enforcement it will upset the big, powerful cash cow clubs such as Bayern Munich and Manchester United who comply with the rules and make big profits year on year. It would also lose credibility as an instrument of football governance.
What this all points for me is making an example of one big club, preferably an English one, given that Michel Platini sees the Premier League as the root of all evil. That would certainly lead to a court case. No wonder the Court for Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne is bracing itself for a flood of cases.