UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin is considering introducing a luxury tax to European football in a reform which would allow rich owners to subsidise their transfer spending if they paid an equivalent amount into a communal fund that compensates rival clubs.
And Ceferin also wants to subsidise fans to travel to European finals following the outcry over the scheduling of the Europa League Final in Baku and the cost for Tottenham and Liverpool fans travelling to Madrid for last night’s Champions League final.
Whilst defending the choice of Baku, Ceferin acknowledged that UEFA and the leading clubs now have a responsibility to make the finals more fan friendly and says that he will investigate whether the allocation of 17,000 tickets per team for last night’s final can be increased for next year’s final in Istanbul.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin is considering a luxury tax to European football
In a wide-ranging interview, the UEFA president also insists that Manchester City will be treated fairly in their Financial Fair Play case, whilst reiterating that the independent body assessing the issue can ban any club from UEFA competitions, regardless of their status or wealth.
But Ceferin did indicate that UEFA may ease up on the FFP rules and that a luxury tax, similar to that operating in Major League Baseball in the USA, whereby, if a club owner did want to invest £100m on transfers or wages into a club, they would have to pay a similar amount into a communal pot which would be redistributed to their opponents.
UEFA is also considering limiting the amount of players a club can loan, a threat to business model of clubs like Chelsea, to rein in the most powerful clubs and restore competitive balance.
But the UEFA president has insisted that Financial Fair Play, the means of limiting subsidised expenditure at clubs, is here to stay and will withstand a challenge in the European Court of Justice.
‘It [FFP] is crucial,’ said Ceferin, who was re-elected unopposed as UEFA president in February for four more years. ‘It’s one of the important things for us. It might change. Of course, I cannot speak about concrete cases. We have independent bodies that are deciding.
‘There are many challenges in the future. Clubs change. Clubs are bigger. Clubs are more equipped. Football became more global. And Financial Fair Play was established just to prevent losses. It was successful but now how do we go from there? How do we adopt [rules] about competitive balance?
‘We are already discussing it. We have experienced people working on that. Competitive balance is a problem. But you don’t have an industry in the world with 800 competitors and this is a strange industry. There would be a difference between adidas and a sports company in Slovenia.
‘This is simply the matter of markets. [But] does a club need 180 players under contract? That means not only that 120 will never play. We have a [squad] limitation of 25 in Champions League but there is no limitations in national leagues. We have a club with 190 players under contract. Why do we need to have so many loans? If you buy a player and send him on loan and he’s 19, I can understand. But if he’s 32. And you just buy to weaken the others. And I’m not talking about England only.
‘Limitation of the squads is one of the ideas, forbidding or limiting the loans. And we still think that some kind of luxury tax would be do-able. If you invest £100m more then you pay £100m and it goes to all the ones who respect the rules.
‘These are some ideas. It would be naive or populistic – which is very modern now in Europe – to say we will stop it [competitive inbalance]. We will not stop it. Let’s try to slow it down a bit. It’s a problem we have to tackle. It’s a process and we have to discuss with all the stakeholders.’
Ceferin will not comment directly on Manchester City’s case of alleged FFP breaches but insisted the process would be independent. When Manchester City were fined £49m for FFP breaches in 2014, it was subsequently revealed that Gianni Infantino, then UEFA general secretary and now FIFA president, has corresponded with City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, in what appeared to a breach of the process, which is meant to be controlled by the independent Club Financial Control Body.
Ceferin did not comment directly on Manchester City’s case of alleged FFP breaches
Ceferin insisted that he and his colleagues will not interfere in any way this time. ‘I don’t want to comment want happened before but it is not happening now,’ he said. ‘Concerning the [City] case there will not be any discussion with UEFA.’
Yet if the Club Financial Control Body’s adjudicatory chamber agree that City should be banned, UEFA will back them. ‘We will enforce the regulation in any case. Again, it’s not about concrete cases. But there are no small, big or medium clubs for us concerning Financial Fair Play. I know that everyone says so. But I really mean it. I trust our independent bodies that they will assess it properly.’
City have said that the process has been ‘hostile’ but Ceferin said: ‘I don’t want to comment on any public statements of anyone. We trust them [Club Financial Control Body]. If we didn’t trust them, we would replace them. They are experts and we cannot enter into concrete decisions or ask them what they are doing. Hostile is a bit subjective thing. I don’t know what they have in mind.’
Ceferin claims that the Champions League has now outstripped the World Cup as the biggest sporting event in the world and that the extraordinary comebacks of Tottenham and Liverpool in the semi-finals this year indicate that the tournament is delivering content that matches anything Netflix can offer, comparing the games to an Alfred Hitchcock thriller.
‘Liverpool against Barcelona was unbelievable but for Tottenham, if you lose at home 1-0 and you’re 2-0 down at half time and you still qualify: Hitchcock is nothing compared to this! It’s by far the biggest sports event… because it’s every year and very international. We have competitors not only from 32 countries but all over the world. It’s global.’
Ceferin says Champions League has outstripped the World Cup as the biggest sporting event
Asked about the difficulty and cost of fans travelling to finals, especially Arsenal and Chelsea fans attempting to make the Europa League final in Baku, Ceferin said: ‘The number of tickets [for fans] I will discuss right after the finals. It would be populistic now to say we will change everything. Maybe an idea would be that together with clubs, especially the big ones, we create a fund. We give some money and whoever qualified has money for their fans to travel.
‘What bothers me is that some clubs are just complaining without any productive ideas. Lets’ change this. Let’s do this. If a sponsor pays £100m a year [to UEFA], they want to have something [tickets] for that. And this £100m goes back to the clubs. The same clubs that come to the finals because of that money. So it’s a vicious circle.’
Ceferin is also considering appointing an official UEFA airline partner to ensure flights are affordable. ‘Exactly what I’m thinking about now. Or that the sponsor or an airline company partly pays or take care of the finals. These are all ideas. We learn from mistakes and experience. Trust me, it’s not easy to organise these events.’
Ceferin an official UEFA airline partner to ensure flights are affordable after the Baku fiasco