Three-quarters of Premier League must make cuts to meet new Uefa rules
• New financial fair play rules to be in force from 2012-13
• Clubs required to break even, not make persistent losses
Three-quarters of the Premier League's
clubs will need to reduce significantly their spending on players'
wages if they are to qualify for European competitions after Uefa's
"financial fair play" rules are introduced tomorrow. The European
governing body's executive committee is set to approve the regulations,
which will require clubs to break even, not make persistent losses,
from 2012-13.
In 2008-09, the most recent year for which the
Premier League's 20 clubs' accounts are published, 14 made substantial
losses. One other, Blackburn Rovers, made a £3.6m profit but were
subsidised with a £5m loan from the club's owners, which will no longer
be permitted.
Most clubs in the Premier League are funded by
owners, most spectacularly at Chelsea and Manchester City, where Roman
Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour subsidised losses of £47m and £93m
respectively. Owners will, according to the rules, be permitted to
invest in clubs, via permanent shares rather than repayable loans, to
build solid infrastructure such as training grounds or youth
development facilities, but not overspending on wages or transfers.
Uefa
has taken more than three years to develop the rules since the
organisation's president, Michel Platini, warned of the "danger to
football" posed by debt, overspending and "rampant commercialism". They
will be phased in, with club owners allowed to subsidise €45m (£38m)
losses over the three years from 2012-13, reducing to €30m in total
over the next three years.
Platini has described the need to
staunch overspending as "a question of survival for our sport". In the
Premier League, besides Chelsea and City, Aston Villa, subsidised by
the club's owner, Randy Lerner, lost £46m in 2008-09, while Sunderland
lost £26m. Liverpool lost £55m, principally because they had to pay
£40m interest on £250m borrowed from banks. Manchester United made a
profit only because of the £81m sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real
Madrid; in previous years since the Glazer family took over what was
then the world's most profitable club and ladled huge debts on to it,
United have sustained losses.
The Premier League had argued that
clubs should be allowed to be continually subsidised by owners, but was
overruled, as Uefa insisted it wanted to steer clubs across Europe to a
more sustainable existence. Yesterday a Premier League spokesman
acknowledged the clubs will have to rein in their spending in order to
comply.
"The vast majority of what is being proposed is common
sense, and has already [been], or is about to be, incorporated into
Premier League rules," a spokesman said. "If the regulations are
introduced as reported, we envisage a difficult period of adjustment
for our member clubs who play, or aspire to play, in European
competitions."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/may/26/premier-league-uefa-financial-fair-play
Hvordan vil så dette slå ut for Liverpools del? Sånn i farten så virker UEFAs regler som at de sementerer klubbenes posisjoner enda mer. De rike forblir rike mens de som kommer like bak- ikke lenger får muligheten av å avansere på samme måte som før via snille onkler o.l.
Hva mener dere?