Rummenigge believes that teams should be expelled from UCL for FFP violation

Rummenigge believes that teams should be expelled from UCL for FFP violation

Former Bayern Munich Chairman of Executive Board Karl-Heinz Rummenigge supports the financial fair play reform.

Saudi Arabian sheikhs’ purchase of Newcastle has raised questions of fairness in today's football world. Many top clubs have learned to bypass financial fair play rules and even beat UEFA in the courts.

Just remember the story of Manchester City, when they managed to appeal the decision of the European football body to remove them from the Champions League. And now, when a new player has appeared on the market, whose fortune exceeds the amount of money of Manchester City bosses by 14 times, there is a need to look for new options for fair play.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was one of the first to declare this danger and hopes that financial fair play reform will be carried out soon:

“We need FFP version 3.0, which will be applied rigorously and consistently. It should provide for a specific list of sanctions. If a club is in violation of fair play rules, it must not be in the gray zone until the situation is resolved.

It is necessary to be clear about what the rule breakers will face - up to and including expulsion from the Champions League,” Rummenigge wrote in a column for Wel am Sonntag.

If we talk about this approach from all sides, then the ex-CEO of Bayern is right. If we are talking about a private story with the new owners of Newcastle, then we do not think that they will greatly change the game.

If they offer incredible money to clubs for football players, then it is not a fact that the players themselves will want to go to an incomprehensible project under construction. It is not clear which vector of development Newcastle will choose and whether it will be of interest to young and promising players, not to mention established stars.

The only advantage of the Magpies over expensive projects from the East, where the players go to earn money, is the opportunity to play the Premier League in full view of the whole world. Newcastle are ten years late with the bulk procurement project compared to PSG and Manchester City. And twenty compared to Chelsea. In modern realities, when the price tags for football players are set based on market prices, they will not be allowed to purchase for adequate money. Agents will cheat management every time they get their heads up and figure out how to play in the big market.

So it seems to me that concerns about Newcastle are overblown. But the need to reform the FFP is a fact that defies criticism.