In the year 1986, an Italian businessman who goes by the name of Silvio Berlusconi bought an 87 year old club called AC Milan, which was then languishing in the bottom tier of the Italian Serie A. The now ex- prime minister of Italy took the club to great heights by pumping money into the club and straight away bought the biggest names in football in the late 1980’s. As soon as he took over, Milan’s most successful period began as they went on to win an unprecedented number of trophies. Back in the 1980’s, the concept of a rich individual buying a football club and straightaway investing millions of euros to buy the biggest stars of the game was a relatively new concept. Silvio Berlusconi, the greatest president in the history …show more content…
He quickly paid off most of it. Despite the incredible losses, Roman inspired the era of billionaire sugar daddies who are ready to lose millions just to be part of the game which is globally watched by more than a billion people. Men like Roman have taken over clubs like Manchester City, which is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family. Paris Saint Germain was purchased by Qatar Sports Investment which is owned by the Qatar Investment Authority in the year 2011. Likewise, Russion Billionaire Dmitry Rybololev bought over AS Moncao FC in the year 2011 and with his quick investment bought them back in the Ligue 1 from Ligue 2. Since the emergence of sugar daddies, they have driven up the transfer fees, wages, and salaries to unprecedented levels in the footballing world.
In a bid to control the high amount of transfer fees and salaries paid, UEFA in the year 2010 introduced the Financial Fair Play. The main aim is to stop clubs from spending more than they earn. Under the rule, if the money spent is more than the revenues earned, the governing body can ban the offending club from European Competition. The FFP rule only takes full effect in the year 2018. The main idea behind the rule is to curb the spending from the sugar daddies rather than drive them out of the …show more content…
In case of insolvency, if the creditors agree to write off the debt, then the business can be solvent again. In the case of Football, rarely has any club been shut down to insolvency. They have been bailed out more or less every time, which explains the reason behind the mounting debts of European clubs. Since the FFP rules applies only to the clubs participating in the European competition, the solvency rule would mainly affect the clubs from smaller or poorer countries like Denmark, Romania, Bulgaria, and etcetera. It wouldn’t affect the bigger clubs like Manchester United or Real