March 4 – UEFA are considering tweaking their financial fair play regulations after Manchester City announced they were taking their fight to overturn a two-year ban for breaching the rules to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
“It is too early to say how it will look in the future but we are thinking about it and we will probably have to adapt it,” UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin told reporters following Tuesday’s UEFA Congress in Amsterdam.
Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules were introduced by Ceferin’s predecessor Michel Platini in an effort to force clubs to balance their books. In 2011 European clubs reported overall losses of €1.7 billion. In contrast, according to UEFA’s most recent figures, the 700 top-tier clubs across the continent made a combined profit of €140 million in 2018.
But in recent years, particularly with regard to cash-rich Middle East owners, UEFA have at times found their backs against the wall when it comes to enforcing the regulations. Additionally critics say the system prevents smaller well-run clubs from breaking into the elite. Ceferin said change was in the air.
“It was very successful as a system, there are almost no losses in European football any more, but now we will probably have to adapt to different times,” he said.
Ceferin insists he had nothing whatsoever to with the process of banning City during a 15-month investigation.
“I don’t know the case and it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to (offer an opinion) even if I did know the case,” he said. “I have not spoken with any of the (CFCB) members before or after.”
Asked if he was confident that CAS would uphold UEFA’s own ruling, he was non-commital.
“As a lawyer I respect the system and the system we have – the investigatory chamber, the adjudicatory chamber, and at the end we have the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. Manchester City appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sports, and let’s wait for the decision.”
And in what was a clear swipe at FIFA president Gianni Infantino and his removal of the independent appointment of FIFA’s Ethics leaders, (one of Infantino’s first acts as president of FIFA), Ceferin said: “For some administrators it’s a problem if you have an independent body. For me it’s a privilege.”
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