European football body relaxes financial fair play rules

LAUSANNE: UEFA has opted to temporarily soften its financial fair play (FFP) rules to help clubs impacted by the economic fall-out of the coronavirus crisis, European football’s governing body announced on Thursday.

FFP rules mean that, over a three-year period, clubs competing in European competition are not permitted to lose more than 30 million euros ($33.7m).

However, given the damage done to the footballing economy by the interruption to the sport caused by the pandemic, UEFA has agreed to a loosening of the rules which, it says, “aim at addressing the actual problem which is revenue shortfall due to COVID-19 and not financial mismanagement”.

It means that clubs will be given longer than usual to show they have met payments owed on transfers and salaries, while “the assessment of financial year 2020 is postponed for one season, and will be assessed together with the financial year 2021”.

These measures do not impact on decisions already taken before the crisis, so for example French club Marseille are still set to be punished after they were referred in March to the adjudicatory chamber of UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body for not complying with an agreement to balance their books.