UEFA to Crack Down on Italian Football After Man City FFP Punishment
By Ali Rampling
UEFA are to crack down on fictitious capital gains in Italian football, after coming down hard on Manchester City following their breach of Financial Fair Play.
City were handed a two-year ban from European competitions and a £25m fine by UEFA for falsely inflating their sponsorship deals.
Capital gains - the profit from a sale of a player - can be manipulated so that clubs' budgets fall within the parameters of Financial Fair Play. FFP rules state that clubs cannot make a loss of €30m over a three-year period.
According to Italian news outlet La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Club Licensing Committee - chaired by Uefa vice president Michele Uva - has already begun to investigate the capital gains system.
They will assess a series of corrective measures to be launched in the autumn in a bid to distinguish between legitimate capital gains and fabricated ones.
High capital gains are particularly evident in Italy top sides. Between 2013 and 2018, Serie A clubs accumulated considerably higher capital gains than any other domestic league in Europe apart from the Premier League - but Serie A had triple the player turnover.
The biggest capital gains takings have been from Roma and Juventus. Roma sold Alisson, Kostas Manolas, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Kevin Strootman, while Juventus, although not selling such key assets, also made money from the sales of Leonardo Spinazzola, Mattia Caldara, Emil Audero, Rolando Mandragora, Stefano Sturaro, Ricardo Orsolini and Alberto Cerri.
Inter are also in a similar situation - although they have made considerably less than their Serie A rivals.
Antonio Conte's side have made capital gains from the sales and loanings out of younger players, such as Andrea Pinamonti and Zinho Vanheusden.
Italian clubs often face a race to sell players before 30 June - the final day for recording the budget. This is a club's final opportunity to break even or face FFP sanctions.
Uefa now have the task of figuring out the difference between genuine and fictitious gains. But from the hefty sanction they handed out to Manchester City, there will be pressure on the governing body to be similarly harsh to other offenders.