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Arsenal among 20 clubs on UEFA’s Financial Fair Play watchlist
Arsenal are one of 20 European clubs on UEFA’s watchlist of teams that could potentially break their Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.
The Gunners have spent a mammoth £270m on transfers over the past two years with only Chelsea (£288m) spending more among Premier League clubs. However, Arsenal boast the highest net spend of the league’s ‘Big Six’ (£218m).
Mikel Arteta’s project took off ahead of the 2021/22 season as the likes of Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Martin Odegaard were brought to the club before Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko added further quality to the club’s ranks this summer.
Arteta is keen to conduct further business before the deadline with Pedro Neto strongly linked with a move, and Arsenal’s free-spending nature over the past couple of years has drawn concerns from UEFA.
Arsenal among 20 clubs on UEFA’s Financial Fair Play watchlist
Arsenal fans will be delighted with the team’s good start to the season, so are probably unconcerned about the financial implications of their player recruitment, but it is maybe worth looking at whether there will be any issues with Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations #AFC
— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) August 22, 2022
Arsenal’s recent spending is pretty remarkable considering that they haven’t competed in the Champions League – a huge revenue generator – since 2017. The Gunners weren’t involved in any European competition last season, either.
The club’s finances for the 2021/22 year are said to have flagged concerns from UEFA, according to The Times. However, the accounts for that financial year are yet to be filed and the situation could change once those are submitted to UEFA.
“Arsenal insiders insist they are and will be compliant with UEFA’s rules and have received no warning from the European governing body,” the report wrote.
On the face of it, things don’t look too good for #AFC, as their pre-tax loss in the last 3 years was £213m, including a shocking £127m in 2020/21. This huge loss was obviously adversely impacted by COVID, but it was still the 3rd highest loss in the Premier League in this period pic.twitter.com/GQnDeDhGvs
— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) August 22, 2022
A thorough financial analysis conducted by the superb Swiss Ramble painted an ominous picture for the Gunners, who suffered the third biggest pre-tax loss in the Premier League between 2018 and 2021 (£213m).
While the Premier League allow losses of £35m per year, UEFA’s FFP rules are much stricter and they only allow losses of approximately £25m over three years.
Swiss Ramble expressed several concerns over the club’s finances, but they estimated in their conclusion that enough has been done to comply with FFP rules.
Thus, Arsenal aren’t expected to be sanctioned by UEFA for breaching said rules up to 2020/21 – the season in which the Gunners recorded a staggering £127m loss. However, the likes of Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Inter Milan are among the ten clubs that are set to be punished.