Stoke Chairman Peter Coates believes that UEFA’s new financial rules could make it “enormously difficult” for Liverpool to return to Champions League football. The UEFA rules mean that clubs can only spend what they earn, and it could lead to Liverpool, who will lose out on sizeable income from the Champions League next season, being locked out of a Top Four monopoly or “quadopoly” as Coates puts. Speaking to Radio Five Live, Coates said:
“I have a reservation about these new rules, in that it will affect clubs who want to get into Europe because it is going to reinforce what I call a quadopoly. It has been great this year with Spurs doing so well but Liverpool could find it enormously difficult with these new rules to get back into the Champions League, which causes the biggest distortion in football. What [UEFA president] Michel Platini is recommending on the whole seems sensible and good but it means up to £50million for playing in the Champions League and it will reinforce those top clubs and make it very difficult for anyone to break into that.”
The new rules would also mean that “Sugar Daddies” will not be allowed to invest their money into transfer funds and wages, although they will still be able to fund capital projects such as stadiums and academies.
