Uefa wants to monitor finances

Last Modified: 08 Oct 2008
Source: ITN

Clubs with excessive debts could be banned from the Champions League and Uefa Cup in future.

Uefa general secretary David Taylor wants to scrutinise the finances of teams entering the top competitions to keep a lid on excessive borrowing.

Uefa currently assesses clubs every May when they award club licences but Taylor wants to improve the system.

He said: "We cannot let things stay as they are. There would be forms of communication, even warnings, even reprimands before one would ever get to a situation of exclusion but it's absolutely possible. That is the ultimate sanction.

"In some countries like Germany and Switzerland, stronger requirements are put on clubs in terms of bank guarantees and having no negative equity. These are the models we have to look at."

Football Association chairman Lord Triesman claims English football clubs have debts totalling £3 billion and the four Premier League clubs that qualified for the Champions League carry a third of that between them.

Taylor said Uefa could adopt the French financial assessment model, which examines a clubs accounts over a period of time and has a continuous assessment of financial stability.

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