Uefa’s financial fair play rules watered down at Soccerex – good news for City!

According to reports, the European Club Association (replacement for fans favourite, the G14)  have won several concessions in the “financial fair play” rules being brought in by Uefa. Rather than applying from 2012 onwards, the rules will now be phased in between 2012 and 2015, with Uefa assessing club’s finances over a rolling 3 year period.

Money from benefactors, such as Sheikh Mansour, to underwrite transfer spending and wages was to have been banned but will now be permitted within limits. Unfortunately these have not been specified, so we’ll just have to wait and see what the figure is.

Investment will have to come in the form of equity rather than loans, which is ok for City. There will be no restriction on investment in youth academies and stadiums.

Uefa had wanted the rules to apply to only clubs with annual revenue greater than 50 million euros, but this has been scrapped.

Clubs will need to break-even over a three-year period to be allowed to particiapate in the Champions League and Europa League from 2015.  These agreements don’t apply to the Premier League, who have been arguing against limiting the investment from benefactors.

Whilst it’s good news for City to see Uefa’s initial proposals watered down, there is still a need for the club to drastically increase it’s revenues if we’re to compete at the highest level. Regardless of who owns United, our revenues are barely a third of theirs, while Arsenal’s matchday revenues for 2008/09 were £100m compared to our £20m.

Getting into the Champions League and expanding the ground will be a great start, but there’s still a lot of work to do for Garry Cook and co.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge:

“I recognise that the Premier League is No1 in the world. That won’t change because they are doing a good job here in England and that is good for football because we need clubs like Manchester United, like Chelsea, like Liverpool and like the ‘new’ Manchester City.”

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Comments

  1. Erik in the States
    4 March 2010 - 3:28 am

    I know now one wants to hear it, but if the majority want parity in world football, then you have to insititute caps. Caps on wages and caps (or restrictions) on transfer fees. If a club violates the cap, they pay stiff penalties. Also start working on more revenue sharing. Is is done with great success in the NFL. Whan was the last time you heard of a modern NFL team going into administraition or receivership… Never. The owners are making bank, the players are making bank…. the fans seem happy…. Not sure if it will work in europe though. Football has been run like it is for a long time and change so drastic is hard. Expect to see MLS int he states run more like the NFL than any UEFA afiliated football association. If they can avoid growing faster than their fans base will support I think the MLS will be very big int he US sports market, instead of it’s present number 6 spot (behind NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and NASCAR)… personally I prefer WRC or F1 if we are talking racing but that is another subject…. Come on City! Grab 4th!

  2. Jeremy Poynton
    4 March 2010 - 5:43 pm

    @Erik in the States says: 4 March 2010 at 3:28 am

    I know now one wants to hear it, but if the majority want parity in world football
    //

    And how would we know?

  3. A major reason (apart from capacity) for the much larger revenues from matches for teams like Arsenal is the ridiculous amount they charge for tickets. I have been impressed by City’s ability to keep season ticket prices down – mine is more or less the same now as it was when we first moved into CoMS – and for the policy to keep prices down we should be grateful……

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