The guardians of European football: UEFA Financial Fair Play and the career of social problems

Is The Sport Management Course Curriculum Compatible With Football Governing Institutions?

“…Clubs which do not take part in UEFA competitions but they are planning to once take part are also subjected to the assessment. Since the year 2010 when the UEFA fair play regulations became effective, European clubs, especially those which take part in European competitions, have significantly achieved success in economic development and sustainability (Schubert, Könecke & Pitthan, 2016). This paper sheds light on the different areas that have significantly benefited from the existence of the UEFA financial fair play regulations hence bringing about economic growth and stability of the European clubs.…”

The Capture of EU Football Regulation by the Football Governing Bodies

“…However, the project was endorsed by some national FAs. UEFA managed also to gain the support of major leagues (Spain, France, Germany) and powerful clubs, such as Bayern Munich, which felt outcompeted by benefactor clubs (Schubert et al, 2016). Especially the German and the Spanish league had complained about distortions of competition by state aid granted to football clubs.…”

Financial Doping and Financial Fair Play in European Club Football Competitions

“…The Frenchman was thus one of the dominant actors behind the implementation of the FFP regime. By empirically investigating the discursive dynamics that preceded the passage of FFP, Schubert, Könecke, & Pitthan (2016) have shown that strong discourse coalitions were formed around powerful narrative -such as the storylines of traditional sporting values in European football being undermined by financial forces as well as the stigmatisation of making debts as 'cheating' and 'unfair'. The increasing loss-making of clubs was no longer only perceived as dangerous from an economic perspective but now also as problematic from a sport ethical viewpoint, in that clubs that relied on benefactors were labelled as cheaters gaining an unfair advantage by manipulating the competition.…”

“…The increasing loss-making of clubs was no longer only perceived as dangerous from an economic perspective but now also as problematic from a sport ethical viewpoint, in that clubs that relied on benefactors were labelled as cheaters gaining an unfair advantage by manipulating the competition. 5 Reinterpreting and thus framing the problems as such provided a strong ideological foundation for enforced European regulation and offered a convenient reasoning, but also one nevertheless very well-supported by the economic evidence of chronic loss-making across European football, for crucial actors to strategically position themselves as moral authorities and to push through the favoured policy solution that was to become UEFA FFP (Schubert et al, 2016).…”

“…Interestingly, asSchubert, Könecke, & Pitthan (2016) remark, opposition against such narratives and stricter financial regulation was hardly discernible in the public/media discourse: statements by the new owners of Manchester City, for example, who argued that only external money could ever break the monopoly of Europe's richest clubs, remained exceptions.…”