Adam Keys
Over the last ten years, football clubs throughout Europe have been on a spending bender, completely ignoring financial logic by splashing the cash for immediate success, but has the time come to apply the proposed “Financial Fair Play” laws? This kind of irrational thinking from board members, to give managers massive transfer kitties and allow them to offer extortionate wages in order to bring in world-class players, has seen many clubs fall into massive debt, with even the world’s biggest clubs looking at debts of around £400 million. The basic objectives of the “Financial Fair Play” laws are to limit the inflation rate of transfers and wages, encourage clubs to compete within their revenues, encourage long-term developments in the youth sector and infrastructure, and ensure that clubs settle their liabilities on a timely basis.
Football clubs must start living in the real world, and stop throwing money around that they do not have; otherwise, the beautiful game as we know it will be lost. The only possible way to make football clubs grow up and manage their spending is to impose these laws and enforce harsh penalties on clubs that do not abide by them. Financial Fair Play requires clubs to break even, losing no more than £38 million in total over the next three seasons, with clubs who break these rules being punished with expulsion from the Champions League and UEFA Cup.
English clubs find themselves at a major disadvantage under these rules, because third-party ownership is banned by the Premier League. In Spain, Portugal and other European countries where third-party ownership is permitted, investors can place players in clubs, allowing them to recruit at a fraction of the upfront cost. This means that the clubs do not have to fork out the full transfer fee for players, thus reducing their expenditure and decreasing their net spending. If the fair play rules do come into effect, we will see a lot more third-party ownership of players throughout mainland Europe, which will potentially make the rules pointless.
For them to work, UEFA must enforce the same rules for every country competing in European competition to ensure no country gains extra advantage due to loop-holes put in place by their governing bodies. This means a set of standardized rules must be made. This cannot be a difficult thing to do, as most countries already have similar transfer rules in place, with the exception of some allowing third-party and co-ownership.
Despite all these loop-holes in place in Europe, England is the worst country for irrational spending, in particular Manchester City, who, since 2006, have an outrageous net spending of £428,370,000 and a total of £531,670,000 spent on transfers. This figure is made to look even more ridiculous when you compare them to Arsenal, who in this time have a net negative spend of £31,350,000, making a clear profit on transfers, and who have still managed to compete in the Champions League on a consistent basis.
Although Arsenal have not won a trophy in the period, they have finished in the top four every season and reached two Carling Cup finals. This shows that clubs to not need to spend ludicrous amounts to achieve success. However, Arsenal will need to spend to truly compete for the Premiership and Champions League.
Manchester City’s spending since being taken over by mega-rich UAE politician, Sheikh Mansour, has saw them go from being a mid-table club to a genuine title-contender in just four years, as well as paying off their £305 million debt. This kind of success would normally take years to build, by gradually adding to your squad each season with quality players and coaches. A perfect example of this is Tottenham, who have gradually built over the last ten years to have a squad capable of competing at the top.
City’s spending has thrown a spanner in the works over the last few years and, as a result, all logic has gone out of the window, and transfer fees have sky-rocketed due to other clubs paying over the odds to try and compete with City’s bottomless pocket. The sort of spending we are seeing today cannot be blamed fully on Manchester City; for years, Real Madrid have been spending crazy amounts without consequences, as their debt has been continually wiped by the Spanish Royal Family.
The beginning of massive spending can be tracked back to Real Madrid President, Florentino Perez, in 2000, when he decided to build the ultimate team, “Los Galacticos”, a team put together out of the world’s most talented individuals from all over the planet. We are a privileged generation, as we are lucky enough to watch the highest level of football ever played. However we also see a world of pure greed, with many players being cold-hearted mercenaries who will play for the highest for the highest bidder.
Samuel Eto’o typifies the greed of the modern day footballer, signing for Anzhi Makhachkala, a mid-table Russian club, in 2011, after agreeing a reported contract worth an incredible £18 million per year. Players like Eto’o are now signing for clubs they would never have dreamed of playing for as they are being motivated solely by money. While I am not saying these players give any less than their best to these sides, their talent is being wasted playing in lesser teams.
Every footballer in the world will have grown up dreaming of playing for his favourite club, not the highest bidder, and for years players wore their kit with pride. Now, that pride is slowly sliding away because of the money being thrown around in the game. Financial Fair Play must come into place at the beginning of the 2013-2014 season as proposed, or we are in danger of losing the game we hold so dear. The game has already been taken over by money, but it is essential these laws come into play to prevent it getting completely out of control.
