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In a new breakdown from Sport Bild, it appears Bundesliga clubs are firmly against UEFA’s proposed financial fair play changes, which are expected to come into effect from the 2022/23 season. The Germans believe the new rules threaten to leave the league – Bayern Munich included – in the dust as they give a huge boost to clubs run by investors like PSG and Manchester City.
Since the Sport Bild article is behind a paid wall, you can get the gist of the story from this thread from journalist Stefan Bienkowski:
[Thread] A really interesting story in Sport-Bild about how the Bundesliga is going one-on-one with the ECA on the proposed changes to the FFP rules, which would come into effect in 2022/23.
German clubs demand much stricter rules than envisaged.
– Stefan Bienkowski (@SBienkowski) September 18, 2021
Here’s a summary of the issues:
- Abolition of the break-even rule: Currently, club owners can only cover a loss of up to 30 million euros if they wish to participate in a European competition (there is more to the rule but it is short). The new rules remove this restriction, giving clubs with large investors a significant advantage in the transfer market. Considering that the vast majority of Bundesliga clubs are fan-owned and self-sufficient, that would be a big blow to the league.
- Lax implementation of the salary cap: The new FFP rules would require clubs to spend only 70% of their income on transfers. While that makes sense, it only covers the 25 players registered for UEFA competitions each season. Bundesliga clubs want this to apply to the entire first team, to prevent superclubs like Man City from building a second roster for domestic competition. Additionally, Bundesliga clubs want a hard limit on what clubs can spend on salaries and transfers per season.
- The “luxury tax”: UEFA and ECA have proposed the establishment of a “luxury taxâ€, ie a fine for clubs that break FFP rules, which would then be redistributed among members. The Bundesliga believes that this allows wealthy homeowners to evade penalties whenever they want and instead want to ban offenders from European competition.
If UEFA implements these rules in their current form, not only the Bundesliga, but pretty much all fan-owned clubs on the continent will become obsolete in the upper echelons of football. Even world giants like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Barcelona will find it difficult to compete if teams like Chelsea, PSG and Man City have the power to ignore the rules and spend what they want. If FFP allows this to happen, then what good is its existence?
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