Financial Fair Play?By

Steve Menary

Austerity and Sustainability in Football

The 2nd Annual MMU Football Conference

Manchester Metropolitan University June 13 2013 “Football, Community and Sustainability”

The top of the pyramid

• Chelsea get €59.9m (£50.9m) for winning the 2011/12 Champions League

• Plus £54.4m for finishing fourth in Premier League

• In 2011/12, Chelsea turnover is £255.7m

A step away from the big prize• Basel qualify from Group C

ahead of Manchester Utd to last 16

• UEFA payment €15.8m (£13.4m)

• Basel turnover 61.5m Swiss Francs (£42m)

• After match-day takings, UEFA prize money is Basel’s biggest source of income

Another step further away• Debrecen qualify for the

group stages in 2009/10• No points from six matches

but €9m from UEFA• Debrecen turnover €3.4m

in 2011*• TV rights in Hungary

€500,000 per club per season

*Source: Sportgazdasági nagyító'

Cyprus• In 2007, a University of

Nicosia survey found that turnover at clubs in the Cypriot first division ranged from €2.8m to €744,319

• Total turnover at all 14 clubs in the league was €17.5m

*Source: Important Parameters of the Football Industry in Cyprus: Challenges and Opportunities by the University of Cyprus, The Sport Journal

Quadrupling your money

• In 2009/10, APOEL qualify for group stages and win €9 million in prize money from UEFA

• In 2011/12, APOEL again qualify for the group stages and eventually reach the quarter-final

• UEFA prize money: €18.1m

• In 2008/09, Anorthosis Famagusta are the first Cypriot team to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League

• Famagusta take six points, including a 3-1 victory over group leaders Panathinaikos

• UEFA prize money: €7.5m

The bottom of the pyramid

2012/13 qualifiers• Each domestic champion club failing to reach the group stage of the UEFA Champions

League receives €200,000. • In addition, each club which participates in the first qualifying round gets €140,000

provided it does not qualify for the group stage, in which case it will not be entitled to this payment

• In addition, each club playing in the second qualifying round receives €140,000 provided it does not qualify for the group stage, in which case it will not be entitled to this payment

• In addition, each club eliminated in the third qualifying round receives €140,000. Clubs which qualify for the play-offs benefit from the fixed fees allocated for that round

• No solidarity payments paid to clubs involved in the play-offs but each of the 20 clubs concerned get €2.1 million. Eliminated clubs move into the group stage of the UEFA Europa League, join the distribution system of the UEFA Europa League and retain payments made for the qualifying phase of the UEFA Champions League (first and second qualifying rounds).

Who wins what in the first round?• In 2012/13, F91 Dudelange

are the first Luxembourg club to win two Champions League qualifying rounds

• UEFA prize money: €620,000• F91 Dudelange turnover:

Circa €1.2m• “UEFA prize money can go a

long way here,” Paul Philipp, head of the Luxembourg FA

• Tre Penne ‘win’ €340,000 in UEFA prize money for losing two games, 0-7 and 0-4

• Average club turnover in San Marino: €85,000

Elsewhere….• Turnover at clubs in the

Faroese league ranges from €270,000 to €540,000

• In 2012/13, Faroese champions B36’s prize money after going out on penalties to Linfield was €340,000

• Linfield lost 3-0 to Limassol in the next round but still received €480,000 after failing to score once in four games

Does every country want a club in the group stages?

Iceland

“Should a team from Iceland qualify, we would without a

doubt see total monopolisation of the domestic league by that

team.”

Ómar Smárason, KSI

Montenegro

“It would be a football revolution in Montenegro,”

Nikola PrentićGeneral secretary, FK

"Budućnost" Podgorica

What is happening?

• In the 2013/14 Champions League, 21 countries will be represented by exactly the same club(s) as the previous season

• Dinamo Zagreb have represented Croatia for eight seasons in a row

• Since 2001/02, Sheriff Tiraspol have taken all but one place offered to Moldovan clubs

What about Financial Fair Play?

• Clubs that can prove to UEFA that their income and expenses are below €5m in the two years before qualification are potentially exempt from the break-even clause in FFP

“In practice a club with total relevant expenses of

less than €5m a year is unlikely to have much of

an influence on the sustainability of club football as a whole.”

UEFA statement

Closing questionsClubs that want to mount a domestic challenge are increasingly fighting against a hegemony funded by UEFA.

What happens if these dominant clubs fall off the UEFA gravy train?

If clubs no longer fall under UEFA’s scrutiny are they simply to be forgotten?

What is sustainable about creating a two-stream Europe with financially bloated smaller clubs simply allowed to pass quietly under the most significant part of the FFP radar?

‘Financial Fair Play?’The Blizzard, Issue 8, 2013