Michel Platini Ends The Big Money Era

By: chris | September 15th, 2009

Michel Platini’s been throwing his weight around since assuming the UEFA high throne and, whether or not you agree with his ideologies, he’s getting stuff done. Now queue his biggest move yet, one which could change the landscape of football starting in 2012-13:

As of that year, clubs may only spend what they make from revenue – television, branding, prize money, etc. – on the football club. This means no more Manchester City’s. No more Chelsea’s. No more sugar daddies. The days of big checkbooks changing the scope of football are over. Football will be a sport of self-sufficiency.

Ironically Roman Abramovich was one of the instigators of this little rule – he’s already spent his millions building Chelsea into a sustainable brand, so what does he care?

“Manchester City can spend £300m if they want to but if they are not breaking even in three years then they cannot play in European competition. I have met with Abramovich, who is a football person and passionate about the game. He said that we must do something about this.

And this officially makes Roman the High Chief of Hypocrisy.

“If a club can get loans from a bank to buy players and is able to pay back bank loans, then it is not a problem. But if a club gets a lot of money or subsidies from a big backer and is still in deficit in two years, then it is a problem and we don’t like that.”

The ‘deficit’ portion is quite important. This effectively means the French-style no debt system and effectively means Manchester United is royally fucked. Anybody think they can clear that debt by 2012-13? Me neither. Ditto for the many other clubs with massive stockpilings of debt. (This does not include Chelsea, whose ‘debts’ are ‘owed’ to the High Chief of Hypocrisy himself.)

The players will likely be none too happy, as this limits the availability for wage funds and thus will likely see a halt in the progression of wages, if not a regression. We may even be looking at structured wage caps which are used by some clubs who already run self-sufficiently. And you can be damn sure it’ll be a long, long time before anyone breaks Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer record.

Of course that this does not apply to domestic competitions matters little: regardless of stature, everyone wants to play in the Champions League and UEFA have used this to their advantage. So even if one spends enough of their hard earned to bring a small team to the domestic promised land, they would not get the sweetness of European nights. A nice little umbrella for all to fall under.

But perhaps what’s most important in all this is that the clubs agreed, which is why it’s been passed. And this means there will be no backtracking, and there will be no weakened knees before caving to the demands of the affected. This is your new football.