By Andrew Warshaw
September 26 – Four of Europe’s major clubs – Liverpool, Monaco, Inter Milan and Roma – are among a fresh list issued by UEFA as being under investigation for possible breaches of financial fair play.
Under UEFA rules, clubs competing in Europe must limit their losses to €45 million (£35 million) over two seasons. Liverpool lost £49.8 million in 2012-13 and £41 million in 2011-12.
In May, Manchester City and Paris St-Germain, two of world football’s biggest spenders, were fined and had a ceiling put on their spending power and squad size as UEFA strictly enforced their controversial but increasingly effective rules.
The new list of clubs also includes Besiktas, Sporting Lisbon and Krasnodar and a UEFA statement read: “The Club Financial Control Body has opened formal investigations into seven clubs as they disclosed a break-even deficit on the basis of their financial reporting periods ending in 2012 and 2013.”
No penalties are being imposed yet but the clubs concerned must submit “additional monitoring information” in October and November.
Last season 76 clubs were deemed to be “at risk” of breaching FFP, but only nine were punished. Liverpool are confident they did not breach any regulations having signed a series of lucrative commercial deals over the past 18 months. Money raised commercially can be offset against losses while UEFA also allow expenses such as on youth development and stadium costs to be written off.
UEFA also announced that five clubs involved in the 2014-15 club competitions have had payment of their prize money temporarily withheld. Turkey’s Bursaspor, Romania’s Cluj and Astra Giurgiu, Montenegro’s Buducnost Podgorica and Lithuania’s Ekranas have been punished for making late payments to other clubs, employees and/or tax authorities,
European football’s governing body remain confident that a landmark legal case brought by Belgian players’ agent Daniel Striani against FFP, due to be heard in the next fortnight, will be defeated.
Striani’s case is being handled by Jean-Louis Dupont, the same lawyer who famously helped win the Bosman case against restraint of trade back in the 1990s. Dupont argues FFP will restrict the incomes of both players and agents, reduce transfer activity and ensure that Europe’s larger clubs remain dominant.
Manchester City’s independent supporters’ club has joined the action – lodged with the European Commission and the Belgian courts back in May 2013.
A statement from MCFC Supporters Club, which has almost 15,000 active members and 168 branches worldwide, said: “Far from implementing a true ‘financial fair play’, this rule is in fact a prohibition to invest that prevents ambitious owners to develop their clubs, that therefore shields the established European elite from being challenged (this elite being unsurprisingly the main sponsors of the UEFA rule) and that, consequently, puts additional financial pressure on supporters (higher prices and lower quality).
“With this UEFA rule, it is now almost impossible for any ambitious investor to take over a ‘sleeping giant’ and to turn them into the next Manchester City or Paris Saint Germain.”
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