By Andrew Warshaw
October 10 – UEFA’s financial fair play rules risk being counter-productive by hitting smaller clubs harder rather than creating a level playing field, according to the American chairman of Chelsea, Champions League winners the season before last.
Bruce Buck says rules forcing European clubs to cut their losses and break even will simply strengthen the big-spending elite – in other words clubs like his – and risks going too far. “We had a broken finger and we cut off the arm,” Buck said.
In August, UEFA announced that overall losses among the 237 clubs participating in their competitions fell from €1.7 billion in 2011 to €1.1 billion last year – a 36% reduction, proving that FFP was having the desired effect.
But Buck implied the system should have been thought through more thoroughly. “Football had a problem and football has a problem which is that there are some clubs who spend money they do not have,” he said.
“(But) The problem we have identified with Financial Fair Play is that it goes a long way to preserving the status quo, and one of the great things about football in this country is that if you are in last place in League Two, you can still hope that some day you will win the Premier League. That is now difficult if not impossible due to Financial Fair Play.”
Clubs could be thrown out of UEFA competitions from next season if they fail to start making inroads into unacceptable losses. UEFA will also be scrutinising sponsorship deals agreed by the bigger clubs to make sure they are not being used as a way of circumventing FFP.
“Financial Fair Play will now have to wrestle with issues like: are certain sponsorship agreements really bone fide?,” said Buck. “We’re all hopeful that UEFA will apply these rules in a fair and equitable manner.”
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