AC Milan CEO Ivan Gazidis has revealed that the club welcomed new rules that will limit spending by top clubs as agreed by UEFA on Thursday.
It has today been confirmed that UEFA have voted through the new format of Financial Fair Play which will come into effect at the start of the 2024-25 season, when the new format of the Champions League will also come into force.
Essentially, the new system dictates that the cost of any team’s playing squad cannot exceed 70% of the revenues, and that cost comes from transfer fees and agent fees paid out plus the cost of the wage bill.
It has already been calculated that Milan are around 20% above that threshold but of course any revenue generated in the last couple of seasons will be lower than usual due to the effect of the pandemic.
Speaking to Reuters, Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis underlined the importance of making sure that football is financially sustainable moving forward.
“We hope that, after the period of transition from the previous system, the new rules will be strongly enforced to ensure that they can help drive us towards this ambition,” Gazidis said.
“As a club, our strategy has financial sustainability at its core and we are already taking steps to ensure that we will be in full compliance with the new rules.”
Milan are in discussions with UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body around their financial performance in recent years.
“We are confident of a successful outcome to these discussions given the significant progress that we have made with our sporting and financial turnaround thanks to the support of our ownership and the hard work of our management team.”
The Rossoneri were one of the teams that joined the European breakaway ‘Super League’ last year but the project now seems to be on the back burner, however it did create a dialogue to move forward.
“The failure of the Super League demonstrated that the only way to do this successfully is by creating an open and constructive environment based on transparency, dialogue and trust,” Gazidis concluded.
This is good. Not imposdible. Player wages need to come down. Noone should make 10 m euros or whatever from chasing a ball around for entertainment. Nurses should make that not footballers.