UEFA has confirmed that Liverpool, along with Monaco, AS Roma, Besiktas, Inter Milan, Krasnodar and Sporting Lisbon are all being investigated for potential Financial Fair Play breaches — something that, at this early stage anyway, sounds a lot worse than it actually is.
“The Club Financial Control Body has opened formal investigations into seven clubs as they disclosed a break-even deficit on the basis of their financial reporting periods ending in 2012 and 2013″ read a UEFA statement released earlier today. Last season, over 70-clubs were deemed to be “at risk” of violating the stringent rules, but only nine we actually punished with Manchester City and Paris St Germain picking up hefty fines and limits on the size of their Champions League squads.
Under the FFP rules, clubs are allowed to report a loss up to £37mil over two seasons; Liverpool, in contrast, reported losses in the region of £90mil over the last two years. There are a number of factors that come into play — covered in perfect, simple detail right here — that should help the Reds massively offset those losses as they submit further information on their finances to the Club Financial Control Body. Since the Anfield outfit did not play in Europe last year, in the unlikely scenario that they do incur a sanction, it will not affect this years Champions League campaign and would only come into effect should the Reds qualify for next seasons competition.
Despite the news that the club is under investigation by UEFA, Reds boss Brendan Rodgers has explained that there’s no reason to worry. “It’s obviously something that will be dealt with by the directors” said the Northern Irishman. “It’s something we’re comfortable with because we’re great advocates of Financial Fair Play. It’s ongoing with the club.”
