Manchester United could face Uefa Financial Fair Play sanction for £350m debt
Europe's governing body will meet on Monday to discuss potential tweaks to its regulations, amid criticisms it punishes over-investment but not accumulation of debt
Manchester United could become the next target of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations after the governing body confirmed it would consider making debt reduction part of any change to the rules.
United have sailed through Uefa’s existing FFP tests, which focus exclusively on preventing clubs recording annual losses. But European football’s governing body has arranged a meeting on Monday to discuss potential tweaks to the regulations, amid criticisms it punishes over-investment but not the accumulation of debt.
United are £350 million in debt, having been saddled with a £790 million burden by the Glazers when they took over the club in 2005.
Gianni Infantino, Uefa’s general secretary, said: “We’re now focused on losses and to repay the debt is part of the loss that the club can make at the end of the season. But, certainly, the question of debt is something that can be put on the table.”
Manchester City will attend Monday’s meeting following their world-record £49 million fine for breaching FFP regulations. City have been vocal in their opposition to the rules, insisting they should not have been penalised for making losses when they are debt free.
Their chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, told the club’s official website in May: “We have zero debt. We don’t pay a penny to service any debt. For me, that is a sustainable model. However, our friends at Uefa seem to believe otherwise. They have their view, we have ours.”
City’s views have not changed, which they will make clear if their opinion is sought at Monday’s meeting, which will be chaired by Uefa’s president, Michel Platini, and include representatives from other clubs.
There was some potentially good news for City regarding the Champions League on Thursday after Infantino confirmed Uefa would implement a radical shake-up to the draw for next season’s competition.
The change would guarantee the winners of the Premier League would be placed automatically among the top seeds, with no place for any side finishing second, third and fourth.
The current coefficient system rewards teams who consistently qualify for the competition – like Arsenal – regardless of how they do so, and penalises those who are relatively new to it – like City.
Under the new proposals, the top eight seeds would comprise of the Champions League holders and seven domestic league winners of the top-ranked Uefa nations, currently Spain, England, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Russia and France.
This season’s group-stage draw, which lumbered City with Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow and Roma, but paired Chelsea with Schalke, Sporting Lisbon and Maribor, could have been radically different as a result.
City’s manager, Manuel Pellegrini, last month hit out at the way Arsenal remained seeded in the Champions League despite having finished only fourth in the Premier League.
Pellegrini said it was “not good that the teams who play qualification because they finished fourth in their domestic leagues are in Pot One [seeded], where the strongest teams should be”.
He added: “Our group seems unbalanced. In our group, we have three domestic champions – the English champions, the German champions and the Russian champions.”
On Thursday Infantino also reiterated Uefa’s opposition to the Premier League staging competitive matches overseas, although he would only have the power to stop that happening in Europe.
Such games would be far more likely to take place in Asia or the United States.
