Liverpool owner Henry welcomes Financial Fair Play
John Henry has urged UEFA to enforce the Financial Fair Play rules from next season, a rule which would require clubs to break even. The Liverpool owner is quoted in the Liverpool Echo as saying he believes the Merseyside club live within their means and it is important that UEFA impose sanctions to make sure that the rest of Europe’s clubs do the same.
He said: “It is very important from our perspective that UEFA is successful in implementing Financial Fair Play. It is a key element. Are they determined to implement it? We don’t know. It doesn’t seem to be slowing down anywhere.”
The FFP is Michel Platini’s legacy as his time as president of UEFA but the regulations have taken a long time to get right and be put in place. Since the announcement of this new football law clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City have spent large sums of money - into the hundreds of millions - on building squads to match their owner’s ambitions.
But Henry feels the onus is not just on UEFA but also on individual leagues and FIFA. He added: “Something like 50% of clubs in Europe are losing money and I am talking about the top tier clubs. I think it is something that the individual leagues need to be considering and implementing, as well as FIFA and UEFA.”
FFP was first put forward in 2009 and the initial stages were introduced in the 2011-12 season. An independent committee is supposed to be set up to judge which clubs have broken the rules. Over the next few years clubs will have to reduce their debt bit by but until finally in 2018 all club must have debt below £8.8m.
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