By David Owen
October 15 – UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) initiative has received an important boost to its credibility, with the European Commission formally accepting that the programme contributes to the “healthy growth” of sport in the continent.
The statement comes in a document called an ‘Arrangement for Cooperation’, a sort of memorandum of understanding, that was adopted by Brussels today. The six-page document is signed by Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, and Michel Platini, UEFA’s President.
Paragraph 2.7 of the arrangement reads as follows: “Financial stability, transparency and better governance within sport can be pursued through responsible self-regulation. In this respect, and subject to compliance with competition law, measures to encourage greater rationality and discipline in club finances with a focus on the long term as opposed to the short term, such as the Financial Fair Play initiative, contribute to the sustainable development and healthy growth of sport in Europe.”
Such endorsement by Brussels may stand UEFA in good stead if implementation of the programme, which seeks to encourage sustainable financial management in professional football clubs in Europe, provokes a showdown between the football body and one or more clubs intent on buying success in a hurry.
While the primacy of EU law is underlined repeatedly, the arrangement may also be seen as a step forward in sport’s long-running campaign for protection against the blunt application of competition and labour law designed primarily with less singular areas of the productive economy in mind.
Coming some two and a half years after a joint statement on matters pertaining to FFP by Platini and Joaquín Almunia, Commission vice president, the new arrangement also recommends redistribution mechanisms “concerning, for example, audiovisual media revenues and training compensation fees”.
It underlines the importance of not allowing third-party ownership (TPO) of the economic rights of players to “threaten the integrity of sporting competition” and highlights the need to fight “all forms of racism, xenophobia, homophobia and all forms of discrimination including on ground of disability”. It authorises UEFA to “play a prominent role in seeking appropriate solutions on issues pertaining to players’ transfers and agents at European level”.
While it still has opponents, FFP is widely credited with helping to engineer a sharp reduction in cumulative losses in European football in recent times. The text of the arrangement, which is due to run until the end of 2017, may be viewed here: http://ec.europa.eu/sport/news/2014/docs/uefa2014_en.pdf …
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