While listening to talksport the other day, (had to laugh at arse's 10-1 reserve loss to villa though),the subject of uefa rules on fiscal policy regarding spenditure against income was mentioned.They have produced a document of 103 pages going into full detail of clubs policy on transfers, wages, etc with it seams, a fine tooth comb.These guys are serious,they feel for the future of the game they need to reign in big spending clubs,like man city and i suspect ,us.But are they? Real Madrid and Barcelona are both in massive debt, so are Man utd and all the clubs in serie a,all so called blue chip clubs with huge presence in modern football.Is the reallity of these rules, that uefa and the the silent boardroom mafia that back up these clubs, want a fiscal re-balance, so with their 60,000 plus stadiums they can dominate football unchallenged once again?.The uefa officals start checking the clubs balance sheets from july apparently, and they can check up to 2 previous years, but i feel for us as a club, unless we invest in youth,(a cheaper option),or move/build abigger stadium, or push up ticket prices to compensate, we are up a creek without a paddle.This will be proved for certain,if we don't make any more cash rich transfers.

If they truly mean to even up teams then maybe they should look into the biggest financial disparity in any league, the TV contracts in Spain. But then that would mean being nasty to their beloved Real and Barcelona so will never happen. All that these rules will do is keep the richest big clubs at the top, the clubs currently in the CL year in year out get the most money and will continue to.

Investment in youth is for sure the best policy, but, how can uefa/fifa keep a straight face?.The t.v. deals of the other clubs in europe,the play-off fiasco involving the irish/french in the last world cup qualifiers,that norweigen puppet in the cl match against barcelona in 2009,these f**kwits just want to keep it to the same old same old.I think now roman has chucked a few quid into the russian world cup, he should ask a favour of putin,and get his 'advisors'to have a word in pettini's ear.

This has been gone over before, but I agree entirely with you alan. Really all this does is enshrine a hegemony of clubs who already have access to large amounts of income. It isn't just ourselves and City who have benefited from influxes of funds from owners. The likes of Sampdoria, Palermo, Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim, not to mention all of the big Russian clubs are all products of investment from owners that would be stopped. All of these clubs have made rapid moves up their tables and have entered European competition.

I personally think we will be ok, because I think we've probably just made the jump into the top tier. Which will mean that extra sponsorship and our growing fan base will in the long run mean we are viable in UEFA's terms. In the end of course the lack of a profit is self-perpetuating because the CL provides a lot of funds for clubs and most will need those funds to continue to be UEFA viable, ie. miss out one year and it'll be very difficult to make it back.

I'd suggest clubs have lawyers and accountants on the case and make no doubt about it, the first club that is excluded will make a case to the CAS.

The other thing that of course is that you can guarantee that this will mean higher prices and you can guarantee that this will in the end be bad for fans. I personally think it will fall apart under pressure from clubs and supporters as well as sponsors. The truth is that the Champions League in recent years has been about the best players playing the best players. This won't be as possible because the same number of clubs won't be able to assemble the same teams. A stacked Barca may still play a stacked Man United in the final, but most of the rest of the matches won't be of the same quality as now. In the end that creates a product which sponsors and TV are less willing to pay for and it means in the long term Platini's backwards revolution where he envisions Rooney still at Everton and Drogba and Malouda still at Guingamp will fail.

According to the following article, Richard Scudamore doesn't think Uefa's new financial rules will have any significant effect on ourselves, Man City, or any other English club. Apparently he thinks that Uefa are "too sensible" to allow this to happen:

Manchester City and Chelsea won't be banned from European over new financial rules, insists Barclays Premier League chief

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore does not believe any English clubs will be banned from European competition for breaking UEFA's new financial rules.

However, he has likened the Financial Fair Play Initiative to a 'soft salary cap' which will see clubs start to tighten their belts.

UEFA's new rules are being introduced in a bid to ensure clubs do not spend more money than they earn. They will be introduced gradually, but in extreme cases teams could be banned from the Champions League and Europa League from 2014.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore does not believe any English clubs will be banned from European competition for breaking UEFA's new financial rules.

However, he has likened the Financial Fair Play Initiative to a 'soft salary cap' which will see clubs start to tighten their belts.

UEFA's new rules are being introduced in a bid to ensure clubs do not spend more money than they earn. They will be introduced gradually, but in extreme cases teams could be banned from the Champions League and Europa League from 2014.

There are concerns English clubs will be hit hard, particularly those backed by free-spending billionaires such as Manchester City and Chelsea.

However, Scudamore said: 'I don't see any circumstances where any of our clubs could get near to exclusion.

'UEFA is too sensible, and it's not in its interests to do so. It's more about taking the steam out of the system and acting as a speed bump rather than about barring clubs.'

Scudamore insists the Premier League are backing the measures.

He said: 'In general we're supportive. It's very hard not to be. Break-even as a concept has got to be good in business.

'Manchester City are starting to plan and are disposing of some of their assets this transfer window.

'They're a very well-run club, they know what they have to do and I'm sure they'll do it.'

With the vast majority of clubs' outlay being spent on wages, Scudamore said: 'It is a "soft" salary cap in effect.

'By far the largest expense is in this area, so by definition it will have an impact on wages and squad sizes and that's great.

'No one in football is proud of the kind of wage inflation we've experienced, but equally we mustn't do anything that dampens the international appeal of our league.'

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