Barcelona president Sandro Rosell spoke of “taking care of the (UEFA) financial fair play rules” that are currently being implemented over a three-year period up to 2013, at at the Intercontinental Hotel in Festival City on Wednesday.
The rules state that clubs cannot spend more than their accumulated revenue on player transfers and wages, something that the current world and European champions have not adhered to in recent seasons, having posted a loss for the past two fiscal years.
Clubs that do not adhere to the new regulations risk being excluded from UEFA competitions - including the Champions League - but Rosell welcomed the changes, saying they were vital for the future sustainability of European football.
“If you look at the world of football, players and agents, every year they are richer. Same with the national federations, UEFA, FIFA, but the clubs are more poor," said Rosell at the Dubai International Sports Conference.
“Something is wrong. The first thing is to put in place the fair play rules. It is not fair when one club does not pay another club, and can then play against this club and win. In Spain, our clubs are associations. We have elections. The new rules have to keep in mind there are two different types of clubs - associations and companies."
Rosell hit out at the effect Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has had on the game since his high-profile takeover of English Premier League giants Chelsea in 2003. "Chelsea for instance, if Mr Abramovich decides to put €1,000, €2,000, €5,000 million (Dh23.76bn) into Chelsea, it is not fair compared to Barcelona and Real Madrid. We cannot increase our capital,” he said.
Rosell said Barcelona would target Asian markets in a bid to increase future club revenue. “For or our income we must look at the likes of China, India, Japan and Korea. Through our website we try to get one Euro per Chinese person per year. That would be €1.6b (Dh7.60b) per year for us.
“Of course we will never get that amount, but it’s a start. The (Camp Nou) stadium is a nice income, we have 1.5 million visitors per year, in our stadium, museum and shop. Our shop is the biggest selling Nike shop in the world. We can’t do any better. The stadium is sold out so we cannot increase there. So the only way is through new technologies, mainly the Internet. It is the future, and the way to go is the Chinese market.”
UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino shared the stage with Rosell, and revealed why the new rules are essential to the future health of the game.
“Football is becoming a big economy. You cannot spend more than you generate. This should be a simple concept, but it is not always the case. Fifty-six per cent of all clubs make losses every year, some significant. There is a strong correlation between player spending and sporting success.
“We decided some years ago that action was needed, and so financial fair play was born. We want to introduce more discipline and rationality in football club finances."
