FINANCIAL FAIR PLAY? MORE LIKE FOUL- PLAY!!!!

Money is the name of the game now! Roman Abrahamovic

It can be traced back to when Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea from Ken Bates in 2003. The Russian billionaire literally splashed the cash. Any player and every player were bought at an outrageous sum and he has spent over £700 million on just transfers since his takeover.

Platini's Financial Fair Play Rule was intended to put teams on a level playing ground

The inability of teams to keep up with the high transfer demands meant the leagues were becoming only competitive for teams with deep pockets. UEFA took bold steps to combat this trend and came up with Financial Fair Play Rule whereby teams cannot spend above their income. Some teams have faced the wrath of UEFA such as Malaga and Rapid Bucharesti who were banned from UEFA competitions for defaulting on payments and unbalanced books. Other than that, I think UEFA is rather unserious about FFP.

Teams such as Manchester City most recently reported a staggering loss of £97.9 million recently but spend buoyantly in the transfer market thanks to their oil rich owners. The current transfer market has seen them spend over£ 90 million on just four players.

ManCity's Sheikh Mansour  and P.S.G's Al-Khelaifi - advocate of 'financial foul play'?

PSG recently backed up by Qatari billions have not been shy in delving into the transfer market and spending large. The current transfer market has seen Edinson Cavani arrive the Parisien club for £56 million which puts the Uruguayan in the Top 10 most expensive footballers of all time, it gets more interesting - Al-Khelafi of PSG went on to make teenager Marquinhos the fifth most expensive defender ever after he made a £27 million blockbuster move to the capital club. According to Forbes list of 20 highest earning clubs in 2013, PSG didn’t make the cut. If they were in accordance with FFP, over a €100 million would not have been spent on players this transfer market. If such amounts can be spent, why was the rule implemented? One of the reasons for implementing FFP was to give the teams that are unfortunate not to have Sheikhs as owners a chance to compete.

Recently promoted AS Monaco in the French Ligue 1 owned by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev shelled out what is believed to be around €60 million Euros for the services of Radamel Falcao from Atletico Madrid. The combined fee for both Joao Moutinho and James Rodriguez from FC Porto cost up to €70 million. Where’s the Fair Play? A newly promoted side!!!! According to official statistics, AS Monaco’s stadium is 18,523 and hardly do they have sold out seats. It makes you ponder where the revenue comes from. 

Real Madrid are the world's richest football club in terms of revenue

Teams like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Barcelona regularly turn a profit, so they can afford to spend lavishly on players as they have done this season. According to the Deloitte Money League, the 2011/2012 season fetched Real Madrid €512.6 million, € Barcelona 483.0 million and Bayern Munich €368.4 million. The bulk of the money was derived from ticket sales, TV rights and merchandise sales. 

These figures have been predicted to rise over the coming seasons.

Dortmund have the loudest fans

Borussia Dortmund who were on the verge of bankruptcy a few years back, but have bounced back to the top 20, ranking number 11 on the list with revenues of €189.1 million . This has been attributed to winning the Bundesliga twice in row and improved money from TV rights. Also the Signal Iduna Park is almost always sold out with a capacity of 80,720. They have also managed to spend sensibly in the transfer market with their most expensive player ever Henrikh Mkhitaryan costing only £24 million. Who says only money can bring success?

Arsene Wenger a full disciple of Financial Fair Play

Arsenal is a recommended blueprint when it comes to FFP. According to the Bleacher report, Wenger’s tenure has fetched Arsenal over £311 million in transfer fees as of 2011. Let’s examine some of Wenger’s brilliant transfers: Gael Clichy was bought from Cannes in 2003 for£ 250,000 and sold to Manchester City for £7 million in 2011. Patrick Vieira joined from AC Milan for £3.5 million in 1996 and joined Juventus for£ 13.7 million in 2005. The craziest deal is Kolo Toure’s who joined from ASEC Mimosa for £150,000 in 2002 and was sold to Manchester City for£ 16 million in 2009. That’s a £15.85 million profit!!! Insane!!! Arsenal’s most expensive signing ever is Andrei Arshavin who joined from Zenit St. Petersburg in 2009 for £15 million, a relatively modest sum. Many could argue that Wenger’s transfer policies have been the reason that the club have gone 7 years without a trophy but at least he's obeyed the FFP Rule to the letter.

Financial Fair Play Rule is brilliant but obviously the rules are being bent. UEFA needs to be more serious and clamp down on teams that are breaching the rules and give them sanctions. This will enable teams with meagre income to compete with the money bags. It’s only fair.