By David Gold
August 17 – UEFA will investigate the sponsorship deal Manchester City signed with Etihad earlier this summer in the first major test of their new financial fair play regulations.
The new regulations require clubs competing in European competitions to balance their books, though a loss of up to €45 million (£40 million/$58 million) will be tolerated for the duration of the first three years of the initiative.
Club finances will be analysed over rolling three-year periods, and failure to comply with the rulings would result in teams not being granted a licence by UEFA to compete in their competitions.
Manchester City, who are competing in the UEFA Champions League for the first time this season, made a loss of £93 million ($154 million/€107 million) in the 2008-9 season and £121 million ($200 million/€139 million) last year, though this year’s results will be the first which are scrutinised by UEFA.
The scale of their losses will be offset to some extent by their participation in the Champions League, as well as the 10-year deal reached with the Abu Dabhi-based government-owned airline.
It is reportedly worth nearly £400 million ($663 million/€459 million), covering shirt sponsorship and the building of an Etihad campus, which will include an 80 acre training complex, an academy, 7,000 seater stadium and offices.
The agreement represents a record world football sponsorship deal, which prompted some of their rivals to publicly doubt whether it complied with the fair play rules.
Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre has openly questioned the deal because the chairman of Etihad, Sheikh Hamid Al Nahyan, is the half brother of City owner Sheikh Mansour (pictured), who is also a politician and part of the Abu Dhabi royal family.
“Are Etihad, City and Sheikh Mansour related parties?
“If they are, it’s up to UEFA to rule on them,” Ayre said last month.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has also called on UEFA to investigate the deal.
“They give us the message that they can get around it by doing what they want,” he said.
“The difficulty and the credibility of the financial fair play is at stake.
“If financial fair play is to have a chance, the sponsorship has to be at the market price.
“It cannot be doubled, tripled or quadrupled.
“If they bring the rules in, they have to be respected.”
UEFA’s club financial control panel chairman Jean-Luc Dehaene has told the BBC that he will be seeking answers over some aspects of the deal.
“I have some questions, yes,” he said.
“It would be dangerous for our authority if we take judgements without facts.
“If we see clubs that are looking for loopholes we will act.
“It is not enough to say, ‘We’ve got a sponsorship contract and that’s okay’ if the contract is out of line.”
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