What was UEFA's Financial Fair Play, and what replaced it?

UEFA's Financial Fair Play was a set of rules, agreed in September 2009, meant to stop European clubs spending more than they earn. It was replaced in 2022 by new Financial Sustainability regulations, whose squad cost rule now limits squad spending to 70% of club revenues.

The original idea was simple. The regulations were established to prevent professional football clubs spending more than they earn in the pursuit of success, and so getting into financial problems that might threaten their long-term survival. Announcing them, UEFA's then president Michel Platini said that fifty per cent of clubs were losing money, an increasing trend, and that UEFA needed to stop the downward spiral. Implementation began at the start of the 2011–12 season. Clubs could spend up to €5 million more than they earned per three-year period, or more if an owner covered the difference with a direct contribution.

The rules had critics. One major criticism is that FFP could further entrench the largest clubs, which generate the most revenue and can spend more on transfers and wages. FFP was also criticised as illegal for limiting the internal market, and in 2015 UEFA announced it would be "eased". Some have argued that its purpose was to prevent financial "doping" from outside sources injecting money into smaller clubs.

UEFA says the earlier rules worked: in 2009 net losses across Europe's top-division clubs stood at €1.6 billion, and by 2018 that had become a profit of €140 million. But COVID-19 brought losses of €7 billion, and the new regulations arrived in June 2022. The acceptable deviation rose to €60 million over three years, and a squad cost rule was added, phased in at 90% in 2023/24, 80% in 2024/25 and 70% in 2025/26.