A lot has been made around the world about clubs potentially “buying success” as seen with the meteoric, and seemingly overnight rises of clubs such as Manchester City and Chelsea.

Both clubs were purchased by billionaires, one a Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, the other the Middle-Eastern Prince, Sheikh Mansour. Each immediately pumped hundreds of millions into the club for player transfers and wages. This brought success to each club with Chelsea winning the Premier League 3 times in 8 years(having not won it in 50 years previously) and Manchester City winning the league last year after numerous relegations and no trophies since 1976.

In essentially buying success, UEFA, the European governing body introduced Financial Fair Play rules(FFP) which basically state a club cannot spend money if they are losing more than 30 million euros a year. Even though that number sounds high, Chelsea and City have been known to lose in upwards of 70 million pounds a year.

To bypass this, Sheikh Mansour had a company who he has close links with, Etihad Airlines, pay a sum well above market value for sponsorship, thus allowing him to keep up with his massive spending.

Doing such a thing is not ethical, as the whole reason for introducing such rules is to level the playing field spending wise, and in funding his revenues himself he is bypassing the standards set by UEFA and giving his team an unfair advantage.

http://www.uefa.com/uefa/footballfirst/protectingthegame/financialfairplay/index.html

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2866/analysis/2011/05/11/2479628/what-is -financial-fair-play-and-how-will-uefa-enforce-it-on

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/08/manchester-city-deal-etihad-airways