UEFA and ECA agrees to heal football finances

Michel Platini, UEFA's President, is dissatisfied with the debt that European football clubs have accumulated.

Platini who is planning to reshape the financial system and resolve club debt problems, said the situation of debt does not apply only to England.

Over the next few years, UEFA is to set financial criteria that will have to be met by clubs in order to participate in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup.

The European Club Association (ECA) has raised objections to Platini’s plan, but now the group, which includes 103 members, is likely to support a move which will limit the amounts a club would spend on salaries, in a bid to prevent the debts.

ECA chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge recommends that salary should not amount to more than 55 percent of club income.

Rummenigge now agrees that "football is sick."

"I read a statistic which says 85 percent of all professional football clubs are running at a loss," he told the German Kicker magazine.

Platini said yesterday that such a limit would be a good idea.

English clubs Manchester United and Chelsea have a combined debt of EUR 1.5 billion. Chelsea spends GBP 133 million on wages, which is 70 percent of their GBP 190 million income. Manchester United spends less than half the club's revenue on wages, spending GBP 92.3 million on salaries out of a total GBP 212 million.

There are a number of clubs in other countries that have allowed salaries to inflate too much. Plantini hopes to rectify the situation soon.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.