Wenger calls for Uefa to ban clubs who break FFP rules

• Posted on May 9, 2014May 9, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain have both fallen foul of the regulations and the Arsenal boss believes that both should be kicked out of the Champions League

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes that clubs who break Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules should be banned from competing in the Champions League.

Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain are the highest-profile clubs to have fallen foul of the regulations – having exceeded the permitted losses of €45 million over the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons – and are waiting to hear what sanctions they will face. 

Reports have suggested that they will be forced to compete with a squad of 21, rather than 25, players in Europe’s elite competition, while a fine and a wage cap are also under consideration but Wenger believes that the punishments are too complicated and has called on Uefa to simply ban clubs who overspend.

“I think the punishment is sophisticated,” he told the press. “I would like a more simple one that makes more sense, although they have studied that for a very long time certainly to be in accordance with the legal side of it.

“You would think that you accept the rules and you’re in the competition or you don’t accept the rules and you’re not in the competition. Then, everybody would understand it.

“There are rules and you respect them or you don’t respect them. If you don’t respect them, you have to be punished. When Uefa doesn’t want to kick the clubs out of the Champions League, they have to find a more subtle punishment.”

Wenger has long campaigned for fairer financial regulations but says that Uefa’s current rules are so complicated that even he does not fully understand them.

“To me and all of us on the outside, it looks a complicated punishment,” he added. “Nobody understands, really. Today people are informed. We live in a society where everyone is informed. The rules have to be clear so that you can inform people well.

“But if I go out in the street now and I ask a hundred people what you think of the fair play punishment, how many do you think can explain it to you? I’m in the job and I cannot do it. They have to clarify the punishment. We all agree that, if we don’t respect the rules, you have to be punished but to explain to people how that works is very difficult.”

Uefa has set a deadline of Friday for each team’s cases to be settled, appeals notwithstanding.

By Harry Sherlock