Do We Really Need Financial Fair Play in European Club Football? An Economic Analysis
2011; Edward Elgar Publishing; Volume: 09; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1612-0663
Autores Tópico(s)Sports, Gender, and Society
ResumoThe UEFA (Union des Associations Europeennes de Football) and above all the UEFA president Michel Platini are very concerned about recent developments in European club football. Many clubs have reported repeated and worsening deficits which have led to record-high debt levels during the last years. In addition, private investors and other equity participants have increasingly extended their influence into professional football clubs. Hence, some clubs have experienced liquidity shortfalls and have been unable to pay other clubs or their players in time. In contrast others have climbed up to the top of European club football with the help of external money. The bestknown example is FC Chelsea with its patron Roman Abramovitch, who has spent about half a billion euros within the past decade to finance the club’s quick ascent to being one of the leading teams in Europe. Moreover, today’s European club football is basically an oligopoly consisting of about ten clubs (including FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, FC Chelsea, AC Milan or Bayern Munich and others, called the “Untouchables” by Deloitte), who will continue to move further away from other cubs until the gap can no longer be closed (Figure).
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