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After a massive summer spending spree fueled in large part by Luis Suarez, as well as other large transfer expenditures over the past few years, UEFA wanted to take a closer look at Liverpool's books to see how they stood with Financial Fair Play regulations. The process has taken time, and Liverpool fans have waited with some concern after Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain were hit with tougher-than-expected sanctions last summer for their FFP violations.
UEFA handed down their ruling today, and for once, there's good news:
UEFA confirms Liverpool are in the clear over FFP. #LFC
— James Masters (@Masters_JamesD) February 27, 2015
That means that, for now anyways, Liverpool face no additional investigations or potential sanctions from UEFA over their financial dealings, not past the normal FFP compliance monitoring at least.
Liverpool's managing director and financial boss Ian Ayre seemed pretty pleased with the news:
Liverpool chief exec Ian Ayre: "We have always been supportive of the principles of FFP and welcome today's announcement."
— Tony Barrett (@TonyBarretTimes) February 27, 2015
For the time being, there's no immediate impact, but in the summer it means the club can continue business as usual. Liverpool shouldn't be complacent financially, though, and Ayre and his staff must find ways to secure further big-money sponsorship deals to improve and supplement those already in place if they want to see Liverpool able to truly compete with the big boys of Europe.
Other clubs were less lucky than Liverpool - four clubs, including Hull City, failed the break-even compliance measures and signed settlement agreements with UEFA today forcing them in to structured plans to reach the break-even point by the end of the year or face further sanctions. Other clubs, like Inter Milan, remain under compliance investigation, though their findings are expected soon as well.
