UEFA and EC sign agreement on financial rules
Reuters - Wednesday 21 March 2012, 13:54
UEFA and the European
Commission (EC) closed any possible loophole that could be
exploited by overspending clubs when they signed a joint
agreement on Wednesday endorsing Financial Fair Play (FFP).
They said the FFP rules, drawn up by European football's
governing body, were fully compliant with European law.
The central principle of FFP is that clubs should "live
within their means" or break even based on football-related
income at least matching their football-related expenditure.
UEFA and the EC have acted to stop any club mounting a
challenge in court to the FFP rules, which come fully into force
in 2013/14 with any sanctions imposed in the 2014-15 season.
UEFA president Michel Platini believes the joint statement
is a significant step in strengthening the policy, saying: "Our
statement confirms that UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations
are fully consistent with EU State aid policy."
Joaquin Almunia, vice-president of the EC and the
Commissioner for Competition added:
"I fully support the objectives of UEFA's FFP rules as I
believe it is essential for football clubs to have a solid
financial foundation.
"The UEFA rules will protect the interests of individual
clubs and players as well as football in Europe as a whole."
Almunia, who has agreed the 14-point statement with Platini,
would rule on any complaints and his comments make it clear that
there would be little sense in clubs challenging the ruling.
HUGE DEBTS
Some observers have questioned whether the FFP rules can
work, but the UEFA/EC joint agreement means there will be no
room for clubs to manouevre their way out of the framework.
At present, many clubs have huge debts which need to be off
their books when FFP comes fully into force or else they will
risk UEFA sanctions which could include disqualification from
the Champions and Europa League competitions.
UEFA's general secretary Gianni Infantino told Reuters: "Let
us be clear this is not a new law. But it reaffirms what we have
always said that the FFP rules are legal and in accordance with
European legislation."
Earlier, Infantino told a news conference following a
two-day UEFA executive committee meeting in the Turkish capital:
"It certainly reaffirms what we have always said that
financial fair play is legal.
"If anyone was thinking of filing some sort of complaint
saying FFP somehow restricts European competition law they would
have to file it to the Commission. This is a big milestone in
the enforcement of the break-even principle."
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
What FFP and Wednesday's joint statement cannot prevent at
present, however, are the types of financial problems affecting
clubs such as Rangers in Scotland, Portsmouth in the Championship and Servette and Neuchatel Xamax
in Switzerland, where poor management has led to difficulties.
Asked if it was time for UEFA to oversee who could and could
not take control of Europe's senior clubs, Infantino replied:
"It is not our ambition to dictate everything everywhere. We
hope we can convince every league, every association and every
club in Europe to implement the same rules and to make sure
there is a stricter control as it is really a pity and sad to
see what is happening today in Switzerland, and in Scotland
where some traditional clubs are going bust for whatever reason.
"This shows more control is needed, more enforcement is
needed, but this cannot be done by UEFA but by everybody in a
responsible way and our job is to convince everyone to follow
the same principles and the same rules which we have started to
do.
"If we can take one positive aspect from these cases, it is
that they open everyone's eyes and show that something needs to
be done."