UEFA Faces Legal Battle To Keep Financial Fair Play Rules

Source: thewillnigeria.com

UEFA faces a high profile legal battle to keep its Financial Fair Play rules in existence.

A group of football agents and fans from Manchester City and Paris-Saint Germain have persuaded the Court of First Instance in Brussels to refer the controversial regulations to the European Court of Justice, arguing the controls go against fundamental principles of European law.

In the short term, this means European football's governing body plans to cap clubs' losses at 30m euros (£21.2m), down from 45m euros (£31.9m), will be scrapped immediately.

UEFA is due to discuss relaxing the FFP rules at its Executive Committee meeting in Prague at the end of the month, with many clubs lobbying for the entire system to be scrapped.

Clubs cannot repeatedly spend more than their generated revenues, and they are currently obliged to meet all their transfer and employee payment commitments at all times.

Manchester City were fined £49m for the 2013/14 season, £32m of which was suspended. PSG were also given a £42.5m fine.

Other clubs guilty of breaking the rules were Russian sides Zenit St Petersburg, Rubin Kazan and Anzhi Makhachkala, Turkish sides Galatasaray, Bursaspor and Trabzonspor and Bulgarian club Levski Sofia.

City posted combined losses of almost £149m in the previous two seasons – £97m in 2012 and £51.6m in 2013.

A date is yet to be set for the next stage of the legal process. The case against FFP is being led by prominent sports lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont, who represented Jean-Marc Bosman's landmark legal case that changed football contract law in 1995.

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