Football’s financial fair play rules are to undergo dramatic change, with the key break-even measure declared “purposeless” by Uefa. With Covid-19 creating a crisis “very different from anything we have had to tackle before”, according to officials, they believe new rules should concentrate on clubs’ wage levels and the scale of fees in the transfer market.
Speaking on Thursday at a meeting between Uefa and European Union officials, Andrea Traverso, Uefa’s director of research and financial stability, said a solution was “not easy” and there should not be an assumption that new rules would be more relaxed.
“Covid 19 has generated a revenue crisis and had a big impact on the liquidity of clubs,” he said. “This is a crisis which is very different from anything we have had to tackle before. In such a situation obviously clubs are struggling; they have difficulties in complying with their obligations.
“I think in general rules must always evolve. They have to adapt to the context in which clubs operate. The break-even rule, the way it works now it looks backwards: it performs an assessment of a situation in the past [looking at profit and loss over three previous seasons]. The pandemic represents such an abrupt change that looking to the past is becoming purposeless.
“So maybe the rules should have a stronger focus on the present and the future and should definitely have stronger focus on the challenges of high levels of wages and the transfer market. The solution of this is not easy.”
Uefa has begun consultation on how to reform FFP, with Traverso saying he expected an “expedited but careful” process to be completed by the end of the year. “Those that are saying that the rules will be abandoned or relaxed are just speculating,” Traverso said. “Rules can be different, sure, but this does not necessarily mean that the rules will be less stringent. On the contrary, when severe situations occur often those necessitate stronger measures.”
Traverso’s remarks follow statements by the president of the European Club Association, Andrea Agnelli of Juventus, in which he said clubs should have the ability to adjust player contracts in the event of a financial crisis such as Covid and called for regulations to look not at profit and loss but to focus “on the balance sheet and having those criteria met medium and long term”.