UEFA investigate clubs on FFP
September 25, 2014
UEFA announced on Thursday that it had opened probes against seven clubs for suspected breaches of financial fair play.
Monaco, Roma, Besiktas, Inter Milan, Liverpool and Russian club Krasnodar have all been informed and will be subject to investigation after Europe's football governing body said in a statement that the seven clubs' accounts for 2012 and 2013 had shown a "break-even deficit."
This forced UEFA's Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) investigatory chamber to launch formal investigations.
"These clubs will need to submit additional monitoring information during October and November upon the deadlines set by the CFCB, subsequent to which an additional communication will be made and conservatory measures may be imposed," revealed the investigatory chamber.
Health of the game under threat
The principle of financial "fair play" is to prevent clubs accruing losses in excess of a 45 million euro ($57 million) limit over the course of two seasons. The goal is to stop clubs from trying to buy success in the transfer market while also racking up huge debts that could threaten the health of the game.
UEFA sanctions for wrongdoers include withholding prize money from European competitions and transfer-market restrictions and fines. Big-spending Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain were among nine clubs sanctioned last season for overspending on player transfers and wages and fined 60 million euros.
"Overall, and including the clubs already mentioned above and the nine clubs which have signed settlement agreements last season, 115 clubs will remain under monitoring," UEFA revealed.
It said that the financial fair play regulations had proved to be a success, with overdue sums decreasing from 57 million euros in June 2011 to eight million euros in the same month this year. In addition, aggregate losses reported by Europe's first division clubs in the 2013 financial year have gone down to 800 million euros from a record-reported deficit of 1.7 billion euros in 2011, it said.
jh/dr (AFP, AP)