Europe's Top Clubs Call For Financial Fair-play Tweaks

Rome, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :The European Club Association has backed an enhanced set of financial fair-play regulations in football that will allow UEFA to intervene more quickly, ECA president Andrea Agnelli said on Tuesday.

"An agreement has been reached with UEFA for a new series of rules, for a financial fair-play 2.0," Juventus chief Agnelli said at a press conference during an ECA general assembly in Rome. According to board member Michael Verschueren, the ECA, an independent body representing clubs at European level, and UEFA want to create more transparency over club accounts and ensure all teams in Europe are using the same accounting methods.

"We think that clubs from different countries should be given the same rules," Verschueren said, without providing further details. The ECA was keen to modify the current regulations to reduce the time it takes for assessments to be carried out, Verschueren added, with UEFA typically forced to wait at least 18 months.

"We have introduced two new indicators. The first focuses on the level of debt, with a maximum ratio of debt in relation to a club's net earnings," he explained. The second indicator would limit clubs to a maximum annual net transfer spend of 100 million Euros ($124 million), with many ECA members still unhappy at Paris Saint-Germain's 400 million-euro outlay on Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

"If a club goes outside of these indicators, UEFA will from now on have a mechanism allowing it to quickly check if the rules are respected. That will allow them to act much faster than in the past." According to the ECA, these measures are expected to be ratified at UEFA's next executive committee meeting on May 24, and will take effect as of the 2018-19 season.