UEFA’s new regulations to replace Financial Fair Play

UEFA decided to overhaul the ‘Financial Fair Play’ rules that were introduced in 2010 in order to reduce mounting club debts across Europe

 UEFA on Thursday approved new licensing and “sustainability” regulations to replace its existing Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, allowing European clubs to make bigger losses than before while bringing in caps on spending on wages and transfers.

As expected, European football’s governing body decided to overhaul the FFP rules that were introduced in 2010 in order to reduce spiralling club debts across the continent.

FFP’s limitations had been exposed by the emergence of state-held superpowers like Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, while huge losses incurred by the coronavirus pandemic left poorer clubs with little room for manoeuvre.

“The biggest innovation will be the introduction of a squad cost rule to bring better cost control in relation to player wages and transfer costs,” UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin announced following a meeting of the body’s executive committee.

UEFA will now allow clubs to report losses of 60 million euros ($65.5m) over three years rather than 30 million euros previously, and the permitted figure will even reach 90 million euros for a club “in good financial health”.

However, that relaxation of the rules is combined with the new ceilings on wage spending.

There was never any possibility of bringing in a specific salary cap like in North American sports because UEFA has 55 member countries and must contend with European Union and national labour and competition laws.