The issue of third party ownership is threatening to rear its ugly head again – insert sigh here- with clubs in England and France making increasing noise about the fact they are not allowed to undertake in such shared ownership of players (think back to the Tevez / Mascherano debacle and you can see why) and feel this hampers them in comparison to other European clubs who use such deals when ‘complying’ with the FFP regulations.
The sad thing is, the FA actually have a point, with multiple clubs in Spain and South America to name but a couple using third party deals in order to keep their costs when buying players down, and attempt to come under the £38 million target from 2013-2014.
It seems baffling that the FFPR allows such ownership yet will point blank refuse to entertain the notion of “transparent owner equity investment” ie Abramovich at Chelsea or the Sheik at City, and the Premier League, along with the French FA feel that not only is this contradictory, but places them at a huge disadvantage and are determined to get UEFA to look more closely at this issue.
Uefa are willing to ban clubs who do not comply with the FFPR, and exclude them from their competitions, with Chelsea and City being especially vulnerable here, with third party ownership being outlawed in the EPL due to it compromising the ‘integrity of the competition’ with this placing EPL clubs at a significant disadvantage in comparison to their counterparts in Europe who enjoy this benefit with Hertha Berlin raising €44m from selling the economic rights of players to a third‑party ownership fund since 2009 – something Premier League clubs are simply not allowed to do.
Whether Uefa would actually take action over these concerns remains to be seen, as although they have ‘promised’ to look into it – a Uefa promise is worth about as much as one from Carlos Tevez – and even now they will have you believe that the issue is much less prominent than the Premier League would claim it to be.
The idea of allowing third party ownership rights in the Premier League is not what is being pushed for here, and the main issue of both the French and English is that they feel at a significant disadvantage when compared to Spanish, Portuguese and German clubs who can use the FFP rules and third party ownership to keep losses down and essentially be in a better position in the transfer market.
If any kind of resolution can be reached the Premier League would be open to this, with even the idea of where revenue is raised from directly selling a stake in a player, this is then exempt from FFP calculations. Whether Uefa would be willing to entertain this notion however remains to be seen.
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