MICHEL PLATINI SPENT a long time overseeing the implementing of Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules but the Uefa president has now had to embarrassingly back-track, admitting the regulations ‘will be eased’ this summer.
Speaking to RTL radio this morning, Platini confirmed the organisation’s Executive Committee will make a decision on what the changes will be by the end of June.
It follows a simmering legal challenge that began two years ago when a football agent, Daniel Striani, lodged a complaint with the European Commission, arguing the FFP rules are anti-competitive and effect his ability to earn money.
Striani is represented by Jean-Louis Dupont, a key member of Jean-Marc Bosman’s legal team in the mid-90s. Bosman famously took on football’s decision-makers and won – the European Court of Justice found that the out-of-contract Belgian should be allowed to move to a different club for no compensation and that his then-club were in breach of EU restraint on trade laws.
In a landmark victory, the court also banished Uefa’s restriction on the number of foreigners EU clubs could use.
Striani’s case is focused on what his legal team view as the ‘illegality of the break-even requirement’ (at a basic level, Uefa have regulated that a club can only spend what it earns) and how it contravenes EU law, namely freedom of competition.
Speaking to Dupont back in 2013, he told me:
The break-even rule, i.e. the prohibition to overspend (therefore, to invest) only ossifies the existing market structure. Even worse, it increases the gap between the have and the have not.”
Dupont feels Uefa has treated a complex issue rather flippantly and lost itself in a grandiose vision, the intricate details of the proposal suffering as a result.
Uefa, instead of coming up with a very technical answer to a very technical financial issue, came up with a rather political and ideological one instead.”
When told of Striani’s legal challenge two years ago, Platini was prickly:
“Maybe Dupont is looking for work. He was the lawyer for FC Sion (who were expelled from the 2011 Europa League for fielding ineligible players) but now that’s over and he’s bored.”
Platini and Uefa’s decision to back-track comes after French newspaper Le Parisien reported on Sunday that a significant change to FFP rules was imminent.
In a statement today, Dupont said:
To recall, the legal proceedings being pursued by our clients (both agents and supporters) are currently pending before the European Commission, before the Swiss Competition Council, before the Brussels courts and before the Parisian courts, in order to judge the illegality of the “break-even requirement” contained in the UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations in relation to the fundamental freedoms of the EU (including freedom of competition). Some decisions are expected soon.We welcome the formal announcement of a change in the rules in line with the demands expressed by our clients in their various legal actions. When the exact content and scope of these changes are known, we will consider with our clients how this development, which on first sight appears favourable, is likely to meet their legitimate expectations and influence the conduct of ongoing actions.”
