Official: UEFA Limit Club Spend on Players to 70% of Revenue

Financial Fair Play is officially dead and in its place UEFA will instead attempt to force clubs to live within their means by introducing something of a salary cap that limits spend on transfers, wages, and agent fees to 70% of overall club revenues.

The goal, as with the original FFP, is to stop clubs from spending more than they have—or risk losing access to UEFA competitions. Whether it’s any more effective will take some time to figure out, though it appears at least UEFA aren’t abandoning their efforts to oblige clubs to live sustainably.

What the changes won’t do, one imagines, is meaningfully limit the ability of sportswashing clubs that are the paythings of nation states from spending as much as they want.

After all, it should be remembered that Manchester City were one of the few European clubs that saw their revenues increase during Covid, and have at times come in for criticism for questionable sponsorship deals that at least have the appearance of being little more than efforts to funnel money to the club by way of companies that may not exist.

It’s also worth noting that some leagues already have salary caps constructed similarly, such as La Liga that saw Barcelona unable to re-sign Lionel Messi in 2021 due to carrying a wage load at 110% of revenues.