General agreement reached on Financial Fair Play measures

Wed 3rd Mar 2010 | Football Governance

Representatives from 92 member clubs attended the successful European Club Association’s (ECA) March General Assembly in Manchester.

Financial Fair Play

After two days of meetings and discussions, the European Club Association (ECA) is extremely proud to announce that an agreement on the Financial Fair Play measures has been reached.

After numerous meetings between UEFA and the ECA’s Finance Task Force over the last months, we are more than pleased to say that a concept has been found, which satisfies both the European football governing body and the association representing 144 clubs from all 53 European national associations.

“This really is a huge achievement!”, commented ECA’s Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

“After only two years of existence, the European Club Association has managed, together with UEFA, to set measures that will shape the future of European Club football into a more responsible business and ultimately a more sustainable one. Today, we have received full support on these measures from all our member clubs during our General Assembly plenary session, which means 144 clubs from all 53 national associations. We have agreed to change the way we operate and that is a substantial step forward.”

The main areas of action:

• Agreement on break-even concept with limited equity injection
• Non-overdue payables need to be faced immediately as very efficient first step
• Phased implementation over five years with a transition period going from 2012 to 2015, which will allow clubs in all sorts of different situations to adapt
• Support for introduction at national level

ECA and UEFA – who have been working together really efficiently on this project – are now in the process of finalising the exact wording of these measures.

Squad size capping

A topic very closely linked to financial fair play, which will help drastically to reduce costs is squad size capping. There was a general consensus from all member clubs to introduce a limit of 25 players with unlimited under-21 players per team at national and European level.

Agents

Finally, another issue that contributes to the increase of club costs is agents. Squad size capping will reduce the cost of players, but agents’ fees also need to be tackled. There is a working group on agents at FIFA working on the subject, but ECA is also looking at concrete solutions that have to be found soon in order to take action. Therefore the European Club Association is discussing with all the main concerned stakeholders, including the European Football Agents Association.

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