By Andrew Warshaw in Geneva
March 1 – Almost a third of the teams that entered UEFA’s two club competitions this season are in danger of breaking financial fair play regulations. UEFA administrators and legal experts revealed today that 76 clubs out of the 237 who started in the Champions League and Europa League were being probed for potentially failing strict break-even rules.
The figure was based on information provided in 2012 and is likely to come down by the time UEFA starts considering sanctions as more and more clubs endeavour to tighten their belts and comply with the regulations.
“It’s a high figure but what the end figure will be I have no idea,” said UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino who made it clear that many of the current non-compliant cases will almost certainly be dropped when 2013 accounts are supplied and losses are reduced. “Don’t forget this is the first year we have been analysing the data.”
Throwing teams out of Europe is the ultimate punishment UEFA can impose and the organisation pledged it will name and shame those clubs ultimately guilty of “greed, wreckless spending and financial insanity” in April before the most serious sanctions are handed down two months later, to take effect at the start of next season.
UEFA anticipate that many clubs deemed to have broken the rules will then launch legal appeals, the Court of Arbitration for Sport being be the final arbiter, with all appeals expected to be heard by the start of the 2014-15 season.
“We are not afraid of anything being contested,” said UEFA’s head of legal affairs, Alistair Bell. “We fully anticipated there will be challenges, in fact it would be strange if there weren’t. July and August could be a busy time.”
Under UEFA’s adjustment period, clubs can be up to €45 million in the red in 2012 and 2013 so long as owners put in equity to cover the losses. But among the spate of figures provided at a media briefing, arguably the most telling was that over five years between 2007 and 2012, revenue among the top-division clubs across Europe rose by 42% compared with a 59% increase in wages. “There is something wrong when wages grow at a faster speed than revenue,” said Infantino.
UEFA also said they were committed to banning third party ownership of players within five years, declaring that the system – already outlawed in many European countries – posed a “serious threat”, was morally and ethically wrong and often resulted in contractual instability.
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