By David Gold
July 27 – UEFA has cracked down on third party ownership after a successful campaign by the English Premier League and Ligue 1, the French Premier League.
UEFA has decided that teams will not be allowed to use money earned from selling a stake in a player in their accounts under the new Financial Fair Play (FFP) initiative.
FFP was designed to force clubs to balance their books and reduce expenditure, but some teams across the continent only part their own players.
For example, when Chelsea defender David Luiz (pictured above) was at Benfica, the Portuguese side sold 25 per cent of his economic rights to a fund.
They also sold stakes in a number of other players, such as Argentine Ángel di María (pictured below) and Portuguese forward Nelson Oliveira, raising over €20 million (£16 million/$24.5 million).
That could have the effect of helping teams to comply with FFP rulings by part selling the rights to their players.
England and France are the only countries who ban third party ownership in Europe.
Now teams must declare any split in a player’s economic rights as well.
The practise has proven controversial, with Carlos Tévez the subject of a dispute between West Ham United and Sheffield United in 2007.
Tévez, part owned by a third party, was in superb form as West Ham surged to safety at the Blades’ expense, following which the Premier League outlawed the practise.
In Tévez’s native Argentina, as in many other countries, third party ownership is commonplace.
Particularly in Brazil, where it is useful to clubs as it helps teams to afford to sign promising young players.
Third parties will often buy into in those players as an investment, hoping to gain a large return if the player moves onto Europe, as happened with Tévez and his fellow Argentine Javier Mascherano when they left Corinthians for West Ham in 2006.
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