Growing up, parents are the experts about everything, and
children blindly believe everything they say. As children get older, however,
they start to realize that maybe their parents don’t know everything, and often
question their authority. Right now, UEFA are like the parents who have been
found out, as their FFP rulings have been so far off base that it has taken the
Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to put them in their place. And it begs
the question, if UEFA are so far out of touch with reality when it comes to
football and finances, then who is governing whom?
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| So many questions |
Last May, after UEFA again refused a settlement agreement
with Milan, I wrote about their “Financial
Foul Play.” They seemed to be looking more at circumstantial evidence
than actual facts, and despite purportedly ruling on the years prior to the
Yonghong Li takeover of Milan, they seemed to be making their decision based on
“uncertainties” of his ownership. Then came “Judgment Day,”
when they fined Milan and handed down a two year ban from UEFA competitions.
This discipline was unheard of, and hardly seemed like any
kind of fair play. So Milan took it to the CAS, who overturned the ban, even if
the process cost us nearly our entire mercato. Which wasn’t surprising, that
UEFA’s discipline was not considered fair, when you compare
the FFP sanctions for two similar clubs, Milan and Inter. Even PSG, who
have managed to bypass FFP rules in some pretty major ways, have now also had
their FFP discipline overturned by the CAS.
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| The CAS putting the "fair" in Financial Fair Play |
While UEFA is an organization that is supposed to govern
European football, it is made up of elected officials and is quite politicized.
Meanwhile, the CAS is an independent organization that hears cases from all
over the world of sports, and has no funding or relationship with any other
governing body. Basically, UEFA potentially has financial and political
motivations, and the CAS is impartial.
So why has the CAS overturned two big UEFA rulings in the
past year? If they are impartial and look at both sides of each case, and have
ruled in favor of the clubs, then what is UEFA and FFP even for? Have UEFA lost
their minds?
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| UEFA were more worried about this guy than the Chinese charlatan |
Consider this: when UEFA first denied Milan’s request for a
settlement agreement, it wasn’t Yonghong Li they feared. It was the Elliott
Fund. They specifically mentioned that they did not want Milan to fall into the
hands of a hedge fund. The irony is so rich there.
In November, after Milan’s ban was overturned, but we were
still waiting for UEFA’s new disciplinary action, UEFA sent a letter to
Leonardo, basically saying that they did not approve of the club’s purchase of
Paqueta. Specifically they mentioned that he was not the kind of player that
Milan should be investing in with our FFP sanctions looming. More irony, they
recently congratulated Milan on their successful January mercato, now that they
see how Paqueta has helped Milan so much. That, and the fact that he was given
Brazil’s prestigious number 10, and has already even scored for Brazil. Now
UEFA, tell me again why he’s not the kind of player that Milan should buy?
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| Not the kind of player Milan should be investing in? |
Making FFP into Financial Fool Play, UEFA is now having to
backpedal. Milan lodged another appeal with the CAS following UEFA’s FFP
plan handed down in January. Not only did Milan basically lose another mercato
while waiting
for UEFA, but we outspent all of the other teams in Europe in the long
run. Seeing PSG’s discipline also overturned by the CAS, UEFA have now offered to
negotiate with Milan as to the terms of their FFP sanctions, rather than see
another CAS ruling overturn their harsh discipline. Huh.
UEFA were wrong about the Elliott Fund. They have had the
CAS overturn their harsh discipline for two big clubs in less than a year. They
were wrong about Paqueta. Finally, after having been made the fool, they are
starting to come around. They finally seem to be understanding that maybe they
don’t know what’s best for clubs or their finances, and maybe they should be a
little more reasonable, particularly with a club like Milan, that has seen so
many changes in the last three years. But if they were doing their jobs in the first place,
perhaps they wouldn’t have lost credibility. Now, no one can take them
seriously. It seems that everyone is questioning UEFA.
This post inspired by the music of
Annie Lennox’s “Why”
Our next match is
Sampdoria vs. Milan
Saturday, March 30
• 20:30 CET (3:30pm EDT)*
*note the time
difference due to U.S. Daylight Savings Time