NYON, SWITZERLAND: UEFA approved new financial monitoring rules for European football clubs on Thursday, giving up on “fair play” and lowering expectations it can solve the competitive imbalance in the Champions League.
The “Financial Fair Play” system in place since 2010, and known as FFP, will be replaced in June by “Financial Sustainability” regulations.
“Competitiveness cannot be addressed simply by financial regulations,” UEFA project leader Andrea Traverso said at a briefing, adding the words “fair play” had been misinterpreted to mean “we create a level playing field.”
“This is why we changed the name,” he said, describing a “huge, complex exercise to get a consensus” across European football for a financial review that became inevitable after the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Champions League has been dominated by the wealthiest of clubs that are able to afford rising player salaries and huge transfer fees. Over the past decade, the most unlikely club to reach the final was Tottenham — which currently has the 10th-highest revenue in world football. Only Spanish and English clubs won the Europa League.
The new rules were praised last week by the Spanish league for “restricting the ability of state-owned clubs to commit financial doping.” That statement did not identify clubs but clearly targeted Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain — owned by the rulers of Abu Dhabi and Qatar, respectively.
By 2025, clubs playing in UEFA competitions will be limited by the “squad cost rule” to spending 70 percent of their revenue on salaries and transfers or face financial and — eventually — sporting sanctions.
After two years of financial penalties, persistent rule-breaking clubs could be barred from selecting certain players in UEFA competitions, have points deducted or be banned from a competition.
“The deterrents are there,” Traverso said. “As from a certain moment (clubs) would be so harshly penalized that I think it would be quite dissuasive.”
Although some clubs were excluded for one season from the Champions League and Europa League under the old FFP system, the most celebrated case saw Man City defeat UEFA to get a two-year ban overturned at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
UEFA-appointed investigators had accused Man City of inflating the value of sponsorship deals with companies from Abu Dhabi.
From June, UEFA said it will evaluate all commercial deals — not just those suspected of being too closely related to club owners.
“We believe the way (the rules) are refined is becoming more and more difficult for clubs to go around,” Traverso said, acknowledging “our capacity of investigations are somehow limited because we, as you well know, are not the police.”
Minutes before the UEFA briefing, Man City were the subject of a fresh report of financial wrongdoing published by Der Spiegel. The German magazine’s reports in 2018 using internal club documents led to the UEFA ban and Man City’s successful appeal at CAS.
City have not commented publicly on the latest allegations.
The new financial rules will take effect at a time when the Champions League is worth about €2 billion ($2.18 billion) total prize money from UEFA each season for the 32 clubs who qualify. Total revenue for all UEFA club competitions is €3.5 billion ($3.8 billion) annually through the 2023-24 season.
A revenue rise of about 40 percent is predicted when the Champions League expands in 2024 with a 36-team league stage and 100 extra games in total per season.
Under the new rules, club owners can cover losses of €60 million ($65 million) over three years — double the amount allowed when FFP was launched a decade ago.
Extra leeway is now being given to clubs judged to be in “good financial health,” which can make additional annual losses of €10 million ($10.9 million).
Clubs face more regular and stricter checks on paying debts on time, including wages, transfer fees to other clubs and social taxes.
The success of the new rules — and acceptance by skeptics who have doubted UEFA's will to act against wealthy clubs which are a big draw for viewers, broadcasters and sponsors – could depend on how effectively they are enforced.
The UEFA-appointed investigation unit is chaired by Sunil Gulati, the former United States football federation president who is an economics lecturer at Columbia University.
UEFA approves new rules to scrutinize football club finances
https://arab.news/4gpcn
UEFA approves new rules to scrutinize football club finances
FIFA announces $60 World Cup tickets after pricing backlash
PARIS: World Cup organizers unveiled a new cut-price ticket category on Tuesday after a backlash by fans over pricing for the 2026 tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Football’s global governing body FIFA said in a statement that it had created a limited number of “Supporter Entry Tier” fixed at $60 for all 104 matches, including the final.
It said the plan was “designed to further support traveling fans following their national teams across the tournament.”
FIFA said that the $60 tickets would be reserved for fans of qualified teams and would make up 10 percent of each national federation’s allotment.
Fan group Football Supporters Europe , which last week called prices “extortionate” and “astronomical,” responded by saying the FIFA was offering too little.
“While we welcome FIFA’s seeming recognition of the damage its original plans were to cause, the revisions do not go far enough,” FSE said in a statement on Tuesday.
Last week, FSE said ticket prices were almost five times higher than in 2022 in Qatar, describing FIFA’s pricing for 2026 as a “monumental betrayal of the tradition of the World Cup.”
“If a supporter were to follow their team from the first match to the final it would cost them a minimum of $6,900,” it said at the time, adding that World Cup organizers had promised tickets priced from $21 in a bid document released in 2018.
‘Appeasement tactic’
On Tuesday, FSE said FIFA’s partial ticketing U-turn exposed flaws in how prices for next year’s tournament had been set.
“For the moment we are looking at the FIFA announcement as nothing more than an appeasement tactic due to the global negative backlash,” FSE said.
“This shows that FIFA’s ticketing policy is not set in stone, was decided in a rush, and without proper consultation — including with FIFA’s own member associations.
“Based on the allocations publicly available, this would mean that at best a few hundred fans per match and team would be lucky enough to take advantage of the 60 US dollar prices, while the vast majority would still have to pay extortionate prices, way higher than at any tournament before.”
The organization also criticized the failure to make provisions for supporters with disabilities or their companions.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer echoed FSE, stating that FIFA’s cheaper ticket category did not go far enough.
“I welcome FIFA’s announcement of some lower priced supporters tickets,” Starmer wrote on X.
“But as someone who used to save up for England tickets, I encourage FIFA to do more to make tickets more affordable so that the World Cup doesn’t lose touch with the genuine supporters who make the game so special.”
Announcing the $60 tickets on Tuesday, FIFA said that national federations “are requested to ensure that these tickets are specifically allocated to loyal fans who are closely connected to their national teams.”
FIFA also said that if fans bought tickets for games in the knockout rounds only to find their team eliminated at an earlier stage, they “will have the administrative fee waived when refunds are processed.”
It added that it was making the announcement “amid extraordinary global demand for tickets” with 20 million requests already submitted.
The draw for tickets of all prices in the first round of sales will take place on Tuesday, January 13.
