UEFA's Financial Fair Play Rules – Why It Barks But Cannot Bite

The Revolution

Club football spending has spiraled in the last few years. The Roman Abramovich revolution that saw the Russian Oil mogul acquire Chelsea Football Club and loosen the purse-strings by signing new players shook the footballing world. It all started with the £6 million capture of Glen Johnson in July 2003, and since then Roman Abramovic's Chelsea have gone on to sign a host of the world's finest talent¹.Since 2003, according to The Sun newspaper, Abramovich has spent a cool £2 billion at Chelsea, with transfer fees and player salaries forming a major part of that outlay. It is worthy to note however that this figure represents Chelsea's net spend as at the Summer of 2013.