June 01, 2013
| Andy West is a sports writer originally from the UK and now living in Barcelona. He has worked in professional football since 1998 and specialises in the Spanish Primera Division and the English Premier League. Follow him on Twitter at @andywest01. |
JUNE 1 — With the domestic leagues coming to a close, European football's silly season of big-money transfers is now under way.
And thanks to the unexpected intervention of Monaco, it looks like being sillier than ever.
The French league club have just won promotion to return to the top flight after a two-year absence, and thanks to the funding of billionaire Russian owner Dmitry Rybolovlev they are ready to make their mark. In a big way.
Monaco have already signed James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho from Porto for a combined €70 million (RM280 million), are imminently expected to complete the capture of Colombian striker Radamel Falcao for €60 million, and are in the frame to sign Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes. They may well be more to follow, too.
Quite how Monaco's current spending will fit in with the Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations being implemented by UEFA is rather unclear. Monaco, it seems, are prepared to take the risk that they can construct a team to challenge for Ligue 1 and the Champions League without attracting a sanction from UEFA, even though their current spending is exactly the kind of thing the FFP is supposedly seeking to outlaw.
There are two sides to this debate. UEFA want to prevent clubs from falling into the trap that Portsmouth, for example, entered in the last few years: over-spending and committing themselves to unsustainable debt in pursuit of short-term success that will inevitably be followed by long-term disaster.
Portsmouth's FA Cup win in 2008, it could be said, was based on a form of cheating: they gambled money they didn't have on players they couldn't afford to bring success; and it did. But then it backfired rapidly and they are now facing life in England's fourth tier after leaving a trail of debris behind them.
That kind of conduct should be stopped and UEFA, led by president Michel Platini, have every reason to do so.
However, the main premise of FFP is that clubs can spend money linked to their revenue. So Manchester United earning, say, 100 million can spend 100 million on players, while Monaco, earning say 10 million, can only spend 10 million.
While this would prevent clubs from getting themselves into unsustainable debt, it would also effectively create a closed shop whereby only the already-rich clubs can earn the revenue from TV rights, gate receipts etc to buy the necessary players to prolong their success. For smaller clubs like Monaco, there would be virtually no chance of breaking into the elite, because FFP prevents them from spending beyond their means and growing the club.
This is something to be uncomfortable about. Success and status should not be the perpetual preserve of mega-clubs such as Manchester United, AC Milan, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. If historically smaller outfits such as Monaco, Manchester City and PSG want to break into the higher echelons, the only way to do it is by investing heavily on top-quality new players.
FFP prevents them from doing so, meaning they never have a realistic opportunity of improving themselves and realising the ambitions and aspirations of their owners, leaving us with a situation where exactly the same teams challenge for the major honours year-in, year-out.
The key difference between clubs like Portsmouth and Monaco is the source of their money. Portsmouth were using borrowed money and getting themselves into debt; Monaco under Rybolovlev, City under Sheikh Mansour and PSG under the Qatar Investment Authority do have funds.
Their owners are billionaires and they are giving their money to the clubs, not plunging them into debt. If they wish to spend their millions on a football club, that is a very different case from the likes of Portsmouth gambling with money that isn't theirs (although it becomes a big problem if, as has happened to Malaga, the owner then suddenly pulls out of the club).
So FFP, although admirable in intent, is only half a solution that in turn creates a new problem.
There's also the question of whether it will actually be implemented. Will UEFA have the conviction to ban a club such as PSG from the Champions League, even if it sparks a potential rebel breakaway by affected clubs, who could threaten to create their own lucrative Super League to directly compete with UEFA's Champions League?
So far, UEFA are talking a good game, but actually implementing a stiff penalty against a major club is infinitely harder than threatening one. Will they have the backbone to do it?
Like Monaco, we can only wait and see.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
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