UEFA Establish New Punishments for Breaking Financial Fair Play Rules

September 8, 2011

The Union of European Football Associations (Uefa) has taken a stringent stance on the new financial fair play rules by withholding prize money and issuing transfer bans on clubs failing to meet the new rules.

The ultimate sanction remains a ban from European competition but Uefa told the European Club Association (ECA) it wanted other penalties at its disposal.

Ernesto Paolillo, Inter Milan chief executive, said: “It’s good Uefa are thinking penalties that fit the crime better than the usual sporting sanctions. This will give the push that some clubs need. Football clubs understand rules, it’s what we’re used to, so we wanted to hear more about the penalties.”

Leading European clubs are ridden with debt with only 20% of them turn a profit. Uefa president Michel Platini is determined to encourage a more sustainable business model.

The rules, designed to ensure clubs live within their means over a rolling three-year period, do not come into full effect until the 2013-14 season but this campaign is the first that “counts” towards the initial assessment by the governing body’s FFP panel.

Andrea Traverso is the most senior Uefa official involved in the implementation of FFP and it was he who came to the ECA’s general assembly in Geneva on Monday to outline the range of possible sanctions.

ECA chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said the organisation’s 201 members fully support the initiative and look forward to working out any problems during the implementation stage of the next two years.

Rummenigge added “Always buying, buying, buying isn’t rational. We unanimously signed up to FFP in 2009 and we are ready for it now. The ECA will help clubs meet the criteria, it’s an obligation.”