Platini’s Plan for ‘Financial Fair Play’

UEFA, European soccer's governing body, approved UEFA president Michel Platini's plan for "financial fair play" on Tuesday. The plan aims to force clubs to live within their means, to ban clubs from spending more than their revenue. "That (living within your means) is the basis of accounting but it hasn't been the basis of soccer for years now," the former France international told reporters.

UEFA's deputy general secretary Gianni Infantino said more than 50 percent of clubs were losing money, causing many club owners to ask for reforms. The new rules will take effect in the 2012-13 season. Former Belgium prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene will head the Club Financial Control Panel, charged with overseeing the introduction of the new rules. Clubs that fail to abide by the rules could face bans from European competition. "The teams that play in our tournaments have unanimously agreed to our principles. We don't want to prevent clubs from participating in our tournaments," said Platini. "Our goal is not for clubs to disappear. On the contrary, we're only here to help them."

As part of the new financial plan, Platini said that clubs would be given incentives to invest in youth development and facilities. Platini also admitted the difficulty of applying the new rules fairly across UEFA's 53 member associations. "It is not easy because we have different financial systems in England, France, Germany and Georgia," he said. "In England you can have debts, in France you're not allowed to have debts and in Germany you get relegated to the second division (if you have debts)."