Spanish football’s LaLiga backs financial fair play shake-up as “major step forwards”
Spanish football chiefs LaLiga have welcomed the proposed overhaul of European football’s financial fair play rules.
New regulations set to be phased in from next year will see clubs’ spending on wages, transfers and agents’ fees capped at 70 per cent of their income but a greater tolerance for loss-making clubs.
LaLiga, which represents the top two divisions of Spanish football and has some of the strictest financial rules in the sport, called the changes “a major step forwards”.
Its president Javier Tebas, an outspoken critic of the spending of state-backed clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City, highlighted the crackdown on clubs settling their debts and increased focus on ensuring all sponsorship deals are at fair market value.
“Economic sustainability in football is very important as there are hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on the clubs and the leagues,” said Tebas.
“This is a historic moment, implementing squad spending limits at European level for the first time and demanding that operations be market based, countering the destructive inflationary effect of state-owned clubs.”
The new financial sustainability rules, as they are being called, have been agreed by the influential European Club Association, which represents more than 240 teams.
Their introduction is expected to be rubber-stamped at a meeting of governing body Uefa’s executive committee next week and introduced in 2023.
“LaLiga, which implements the strongest financial fair play norms in football anywhere, has spent years advocating for stronger financial fair play rules at European level,” the organisation added.
“The proposal to be considered at the Uefa Executive Committee on April 7 is a major step forward for European football, providing financial sustainability and responsibility and restricting the ability of state-owned clubs to commit financial doping.”
For the first year of the new rules, clubs will be allowed to spend 90 per cent of their revenue on wages, transfers and agents, falling to 80 per cent in 2024 and 70 per cent thereafter.
The regulatory shake-up marks the end of financial fair play, rules that took effect in 2010 and helped slash the number of teams in distress but came to be seen as toothless against the richest clubs.