Other website sections

»Sports Market Reports

»Sports Jobs

»Tenders

»Directory

»Conferences

English champion Manchester United is prepared to meet new rules regulating team finances being considered by European soccer’s governing body, Chief Executive Officer David Gill said.

Under UEFA’s plan, money-losing clubs may face fines or be excluded from the Champions League. While United had record sales of 256.2 million pounds ($416 million) in its latest published accounts, parent company Red Football Joint Venture Ltd. had a full-year loss of 43.2 million pounds. The 18-time English champion is also servicing 650 million pounds in debt.

UEFA, led by President Michel Platini, may require clubs to match expenses with revenue. Although the plan isn’t complete, the Frenchman wants to bring in regulations for the start of the 2012-13 season. Gill will be among club directors meeting in Geneva on Sept. 8 to discuss the proposals. UEFA is also proposing a cap on squad sizes to prevent the biggest teams from hoarding the best players.

“Ultimately, it’s a matter of saying, ‘What’s good for football?’” Gill said during an Aug. 27 interview. “And what’s good for football is that teams can effectively sustain themselves, which is what he’s saying, which we wouldn’t have any issues with at all.”

Clubs, including Premier League rival Chelsea and Italian champion Inter Milan, have supported the need for financial controls as player salaries and transfer fees continue to rise.

“We’ll see how it actually is intended to be in practice,” Gill said. “The devil will be in the detail.”

‘Pretty Resilient’

Manchester United is the second-richest team behind Real Madrid, according to accountant Deloitte LLP. Gill said the club can withstand the U.K.’s recession and maintain its position among the elite. He said the club had sold 55,000 season tickets and “well over 20 million pounds” worth of executive seating.

“Football is pretty resilient,” he said. “We’ve shown that we’ve got a good business model that’s ensured we’ve progressed in what are difficult times. We’re not complacent: we’re in relatively good shape so that when the economy does recover we’ll benefit from that.”

Manchester United’s failure to spend most of the record 80 million pounds earned from the sale of world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid has raised concerns among supporters. Gill said that the club has historically been able to withstand the departure of marquee players like David Beckham.

“Obviously Ronaldo was a great, great player,” he said. “But for us it’s about the team. We lost (David) Beckham; we brought in Ronaldo. (Eric) Cantona retired and we brought in Beckham. It’s Manchester United, we’ve been around since 1878 and we’ve done very, very well on the pitch and off the pitch in the last 20 years.”

(Source: Bloomberg)