UEFA Financial Fair Play Explained

Once upon a time, there were a handful of teams that dominated English football. Liverpool ruled the 70’s and 80’s, then Alex Ferguson vowed to knock Liverpool off their perch.

Manchester United did knock them off their perch and dominated the 90’s and much of the 2000’s. The league was great to watch, but rather predictable. There was always a sense of inevitability about the outcome, where the trophy would reside.

Then the oil money poured in, first to Chelsea and then to Manchester City. They brought in the best players money can buy, raised the standard of play and made the league more competitive than ever before.

Other teams such as Tottenham and to a lesser extent and Everton have pumped huge sums of money into their squad in a bid to join the elite.

This coupled with the re-emergence of Liverpool has made for very exciting times in the Barclays Premier League.

Then came UEFA Financial Fair Play, a well intentioned initiative to level the playing field.

It’s purpose to Enable all clubs to compete on an even keel by limiting spending.

One of the rather unfortunate side effects of Financial Fair Play is that it prevents smaller clubs from ever becoming large.

It prevents well endowed financiers from taking a Charlton Athletic and turning them into a Chelsea, or taking a Macclesfield Town and transforming them into a Manchester City.

Clubs can only spend what they earn, wealthy benefactors need not apply.

This saddens many of us as it will ultimately maintains the status quo, throwing us back to the good old days of predictability.

No club apart from those already among the elites, are likely to rise to greatness.

Many clubs, with the help of creative accounting, have found ways to circumvent Financial Fair Play rules. This of course, defeats the purpose of having these rules. There are also the legal hurdles UEFA may face if certain actions are taken against a club as punishment.

In an ideal world, football clubs live within their means, develop young talent and move them through the ranks.

League titles are won on hard work, determination and skill. Sadly, this is not football utopia.

The modern game is such that the club with the most expensively assembled squad will win the most points during the course of a season.

As such, smaller teams must be afforded the oppurtunity to spend their way to levelling the playing field.

That for me is Financial Fair Play.