Former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has called for football’s Financial Fair Play regulations to be reformed in order allow “emerging clubs” to compete with Europe’s big boys.
Wenger was one of the most vocal advocates of FFP during its early years, managing Arsenal through a costly stadium move at a time when first Chelsea and then Manchester City enjoyed transformative takeovers and lavish spending.
However, the Frenchman admitted in 2017 – shortly after PSG had agreed a world-record €222million deal to sign Neymar from Barcelona - that he had lost faith in the system because of its legal loopholes.
Now working as Fifa’s head of global development, Wenger believes a relaxing in the rules is needed in order to permit further investment in the game, so long as stringent checks are put in place regarding its origins.
“I am in favour of measures that reinforce checks around club management, over measures that restrict and limit,” Wenger told L’Equipe. “We should value quality management and encourage it.
“And I am in favour of opening things up to more investment, which FFP does not allow for. The clubs that dominate Europe today are those that were built and made investments during an era where FFP did not exist. FFP prevents emerging clubs who want to invest from doing so. That is not normal.
“These rules have fixed a hierarchy, the big historical clubs are bigger and bigger and, obviously, they are all fighting for FFP rules to be scrupulously applied to the others so that competitors can’t come through.
“Controlling club management rigorously yes, verifying where funds are coming from, yes, but we need to encourage people to invest in football. FFP must become more flexible and facilitate investment.”
Regardless of longer-term reform, it seems likely that there will be some relaxing of FFP regulations in the immediate aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
Income streams have been wiped out by the football shutdown, while external investment from owners and shareholders could be key to the survival of some clubs.
