Moving the goalposts

Are Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules at odds with EU Competition Law?

Manchester City in action against Bayern Munich last Wednesday: the English club were fined €60 million by Uefa for running up heavy financial losses Picture: Getty

Uefa’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules may seem to be the solution to protecting the beautiful game, by making the sport more competitive, but it may not be the case from an economic point of view. The implementation of FFP may unintentionally lead to anti-competitive “oligopoleagues”. It could be argued that FFP violates both the spirit and the letter of EU competition rules. The EU’s outgoing competition commissioner, Joaquín Almunia, himself an avid ...