March 07, 2011

Save Me From Myself: Daniel Geey of European law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse with a long-form essay about the impact of UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules on Liverpool Football Club.

posted by Mr Bismarck to soccer at 11:36 AM - 4 comments

Have to agree with the long term assessment. It's NOT a salary cap system, but clubs will have to live within their revenue. This means clubs with more earnings from match days, commercial activities and other sources will always do better (if managed well).

Good news for Liverpool, sure, but bad news for smaller clubs. It will serve to strengthen the dominance of the current elite.

Aside: Given the dominance of the EPL over other leagues in the emerging markets of East Asia, I predict that Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal will also begin to outstrip the Real Madrids, Barcelonas and Milans.

posted by owlhouse at 11:15 PM on March 07, 2011

Would it really be any worse than the system that exists now, as far as the smaller clubs are concerned?

Maybe a bit of revenue sharing would be in order; didn't the clubs use to split the gate receipts between home and visiting teams? That's one way to ensure that the smaller clubs can compete financially. Why was this done away with? (okay that's more of an FA or PL level solution, not a UEFA solution, but whatever)

I see reading the article this only applies to clubs wanting to participate in EUFA competition; so no real incentive there to level things a bit at the national level. This

posted by dave2007 at 02:13 AM on March 09, 2011

....sorry, meant to add that I'm mixing up UEFA and FA levels of administration. This does not apply to revenue sharing at the national level as it only applies to teams participating in EUFA competitions. So, never mind what I said.

posted by dave2007 at 02:26 AM on March 09, 2011

Would it really be any worse than the system that exists now, as far as the smaller clubs are concerned?

From my reading, yes. Of course, you could just declare you have no interest in playing in European tournaments and spend as you see fit, but that's not going to bring the fans in the doors and you'd be hand-cuffed by the decision for a couple of years afterward.

posted by yerfatma at 08:49 AM on March 09, 2011

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