New regulations to tackle the amount of debt carried by clubs such as ManU and Real Madrid could be discussed next week by UEFA "as part of a review of its financial fair play rules," according to Owen Gibson of the London GUARDIAN. Clubs including Man City and Ligue 1 side Paris St. Germain, fined £49M ($79M) each after infringing the European governing body’s break-even rules, have been invited to a UEFA meeting in Nyon "to discuss how the rules are being implemented." Both clubs "have long argued that because their losses are covered by cash from their owners, whereas rivals such as Manchester United and Real Madrid are allowed to continue to carry large debts, the rules are unfair." Man City Chair Khaldoon al-Mubarak said, “We have a sustainable project today, in Manchester and across the board in the City Football Group. We have zero debt. We don’t pay a penny to service any debt. For me, that is a sustainable model. However, our friends at UEFA seem to believe otherwise. They have their view, we have ours." UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino lauded the success of the first cycle of the implementation of FFP rules, "pointing to figures showing the amount of money owed by clubs in its competitions across Europe had decreased" from £57M ($92M) to £9M ($14M). Infantino said that aggregate losses of clubs across Europe had been reduced from €1.7B in '11 to €800M last year "and revenue growth had also outstripped wage inflation for the first time" (GUARDIAN, 10/9).
