Just seen this article. UEFA president Michel Platini has warned that Spainâs football clubs are in the worst financial shape out of all the major European leagues. The former France international and European footballer of the year highlighted the financial problems which are rife throughout the clubs of La Liga, warning that many will have to take immediate remedial action. He told the newspaper Le Parisien: âOf the five major championships such as England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France, the clubs have a combined debt of â¬1.2bn. The worst case is Spain. Some teams ceased to pay players, and the players went on strike. It is serious.â Platini, speaking ahead of UEFAâs launch of new financial fair play rules, which will force clubs to reduce their debts, added: âWe do not want to disqualify clubs (from European competition), as much as help them.â Things are bad in England, but seem much worse in Spain. I am wondering if Platini would have the balls to ban Barca and Real from the Champions league? I am sure that the sponsors would soon start pulling out if those two teams weren't in it. If Barca and Real aren't banned but other clubs are there would surely be serious ramifications for UEFA. This is surely a ticking time bomb for UEFA?
Ess, the other week Platini was quoted as saying clubs like Barca and Man Utd did not have a problem because they had the means to pay their debts in the same way a millionaire can make large mortgage repayments. He then seemed to infer that clubs, who make big losses every year were the ones he and UEFA were looking at. I hear what you say about banning clubs, but UEFA would only have to ban a big club once before everyone got their house in order. I agree with you about whether they would have the balls to do it though.
This rule is utter ****, it will never be taken seriously, like most new rules in football it will fall by the wayside
Well thats all UEFA care about, they will do anything to ensure Barca and Real are kept in so no need to worry
Let Platini carry on til he works himself out of a job. If the big players (and in the UK that includes Man Utd and Liverpool) in Germany Italy and Spain get sidelined then I can see them walking away from UEFA
its not about being in debt, it's about managing debt. If a club is not managing their debt through money made by their own means then they are a disaster waiting to happen (according to UEFA) Chelsea (I'm sure there are lots of other clubs doing this too, but I know it happens with Chelsea. This isn''t a wum) are financed by interest free loans by Roman Abramovic (financed by him personally, not a bank) which is still technically debt (even if it is to the guy that owns you) and you do not make the profits back to pay off those "loans". I'd imagine Man City are the same but I don't know for certain - basically what this means is that if Roman's (and possibly Mansour's) other business' were to go down the pan (unlikely in these circumstances but it could happen with other owners) they would be well within their rights to call in payment from the clubs on these intrest free loans (crippling the clubs in question) Man Utd are actively paying their debts and they make huge operating profits, Liverpool also, make huge operating profits (although their books will make interesting reading when their published next year because I don't know how we've financed our rebuild while staying completley in the FFP rules)
Bozz, I suspect Lpool will do what they can to get in the CL and then worry about it then. Clubs like Malaga are being bankrolled at present and again will not fall foul of any UEFA rules until they qualify. blue, German clubs have strict rules about going into debt and making losses. I cannot see any of them struggling with the new rules as something similar operates in their domestic league anyway. You can tell by the results every weekend in the Bundesliga that it is more competitive.
