Uefa fears impact of new Premier League spending rules

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire says he questioned how effective Uefa’s rules could be at curbing losses.

“It completely ignores your non-football-related costs, non-player-related costs,” he told BBC Sport.

“What happens if you’re borrowing money at huge rates of interest?

“What happens if you’ve had a disastrous overspend in terms of some of your maintenance and infrastructure costs?

“I’m not convinced with the central tenant of the argument, but Uefa, to its credit, has not been bothered about having a competitive product.

“Uefa has given away so many concessions to the bigger clubs to effectively ring-fence it as far as the Champions League is concerned.”

Maguire said there is always a “sort of snarkiness” towards the Premier League because of its success.

He said a key difference is that Premier League clubs take their own decisions, rather than being decided by a managing body – as is the case with La Liga.

It means that Premier League clubs “will always do what’s in their own short-term best interest”.

Maguire said different percentage thresholds could cause problems, especially for the club in the Conference League.

“The money you’ll make from winning that – you’re probably talking no more than £20m,” he said.

“Factor in the costs and that you’re going to need a more expensive squad and qualification for the Conference League is now a bit of a poisoned chalice.”

The Premier League clubs in this competition could be at a competitive disadvantage, still working to Uefa’s 70% but with minimal additional income.

Yet that seems to be an exceptional case.

With the huge commercial finances of the Premier League, its clubs were already a step ahead.

Another boost to spending power is the last thing rivals clubs want.