BOOKS
THIS
MONTH
GOLDEN
ByJames Kelly (Pitch
Publishing, £16.99)The definitive story
of football in Belgium,
Golden: Why Belgian
Football is More Than
One Generationgoes
beyond the current
team of stars. Exploring
both domestic and
international success,
it relives the forgotten
Belgian triumphs
against football’s
biggest names. Packed
with unsung heroes and
pivotal figures from
Antwerp to Waregem,
it tells the tale of how a
nation with a population
of under12 million has
continued to make its
mark on world football.NOT GERMAN,
I’M SCOUSE
By Carsten Nippert
(Pitch Publishing, £16.99)Carsten Nippert’s first
visits to Anfield were
characterised by fear
when he encountered
vitriolic Mancunians
and Kopites whose
dialect confused him,
but his adventures as
a passionate young fan
would eventually take
him to Istanbul, Athens,
Kyiv and Madrid.Not
German, I’m Scouseis
the hilarious, emotional
and compelling story of
an unlikely Liverpool
fan who became a
Scouser at heart.GLOBAL FOOTBALL INTELLIGENCE
period of time, Financial Fair Play
is achieving what it set out to do:
restore the financial health of
European football and put clubs
on a much better and more solid
financial foundation.”
That was in May 2015.Just a few
months later Platini was banned over
the $2m “disloyal payment” from
Blatter’s FIFA that would ultimately
see both men in the dock in
Bellinzona inJune accused
of fraud (charges they deny).
By the time of Platini’s
enforced exit, FFP was working
but reservations were growing.
The system did nothing to redress
an expanding imbalance between the
rich and the poor. Also punishments
such as competition suspensions
appeared to be applied far more
readily to the have-nots than to the
haves. That suspicion exploded into
daylight when high-spending (and
high-paying) Paris Saint-Germain
and Manchester City slipped
through the regulatory net.
A voluble critic that the system
was broken was La Liga president
Javier Tebas. In Manchester in 2017
he told me: “It’s not that I don’t like
PSG. But what happens when this
[Qatari] money comes into European
football? There is an inflation of
salaries and transfer fees. This is
damaging football. There is an
incredible risk when such money
comes in from these states.
“It is not just about PSG but also
Manchester City. I will always need
more money from TV, otherwise
Manchester City with its Abu Dhabi
oil will take all the best players.”
Of course by now UEFA had
more problems than FFP to resolve.
Platini’s removal from the presidency
caused a considerable hiatus before
Aleksander Ceferin had got to grips
with the complexities of the job. He
had thought he might commute on
a part-time basis from Slovenia but
soon found he had been badly
mistaken.
UEFA was already working on
a revision to FFP when COVID-
wreaked financial havoc across the
European club game. FFP went out
of the window as clubs scrambled
for cash, in whatever amount and
from whatever source. COVID killed
off Financial Fair Play as we knew it
and forced UEFA to come up with
something new.
The lately-revealed Financial
Sustainability Regulations sound like
a system to power floodlights with
wind turbines and solar panels. Not
true. A better way to consider this
is Financial Fair Play with teeth.
Just be aware that the “fair play”
label has been ditched out of
embarrassment at its circumvention
by PSG and Manchester City.
Wage caps and the like would
be crushed by the courts so UEFA
has come up with a 70 per cent
squad cost ceiling on the pay of
players, managers and agents
when set against club revenue.
The system kicks off this summer.
Implementation will be graduated
over three years so clubs have time
to adapt. Full imposition of the new
regime begins in 2025-26.
Andrea Traverso, UEFA’s director
of financial sustainability, believes
that the original Financial Fair
Play regulations had laid a solid
foundation. He says: “The average
squad cost at the moment is closer
to 90 per cent than 70 per centbut, before the pandemic, it was
between 60-70 per cent. Now that
spectators and sponsors are coming
back we expect the ratio to come
down naturally but still it remains
challenging for a number of clubs.”
Traverso believes the squad costs
limit will be hard to circumvent
because breaches, whether through
direct pay or media rights deals,
would risk players falling foul of
national tax laws.
Punishments are another
issue entirely. They could include
prohibitions on the use of certain
players, squad limits, the deduction
of points or possibly even relegation
from one UEFA competition to
another.
Ceferin says: “UEFA’s first financial
regulations served their primary
purpose. They helped pull European
football finances back from the brink
and revolutionised how European
football clubs are run. However, the
evolution of the football industry,
alongside the inevitable financial
effects of the pandemic, showed
a need for wholesale reform.”
The new controls are welcome if
they prove loophole-free. But they
do not address that financial chasm.
Ceferin’s “wholesale reform” remains
alongwayoff.Financial Fair Play mastermind...the man behind the idea, former UEFA president Michel Platini