World Crisis Online

Profligate football club owners, such as Chelsea’s Roman Abramovich, cannot escape Uefa’s financial clampdown even though they should avoid immediate sanction when new spending rules are introduced, the sport’s European governing body has warned.

Monday’s final day of football’s January transfer window, which saw £135m ($218m) of deals, prompted Uefa to issue a statement saying it remained confident that clubs were aware of the “financial fair play” rules that begin this summer.

The Russian billionaire was responsible for £76.5m of the Monday deadline-day deals, buying Fernando Torres from Liverpool for £50m, which smashed the record for transfers between British clubs, and David Luiz from Benfica for £26.5m.

Liverpool added to the frenzied spending, cashing in its windfall from Chelsea by buying Andy Carroll from Newcastle United for £35m and Luis Suarez from Ajax for £22.8m.

The size of the deals left football experts and even several players struggling to comprehend the value attributed to some of the purchases. Alan Shearer, the BBC football pundit, said of the £35m deal for the departed Newcastle United striker: “I am surprised at how quickly it came along and it’s an astonishing amount for a young guy with huge potential.”

Uefa said it was aware of the transfer activity. “It must be noted, however, that the financial fair play rules do not prevent clubs from spending money on transfers themselves but rather require them to balance their books at the end of the season,” Uefa said.

It added, however, that the January transfers would have an impact “on the break-even results of the financial years ending 2012 and 2013”, the first years to be assessed to see whether clubs abide by the break-even rule. “The clubs know the rules and also know that Uefa is fully committed to implementing them with rigour,” the governing body said.

Chelsea chose Monday to reveal that it made a total loss last season of £71m which, added to Monday’s spending, suggests at first viewing it will struggle to comply with Uefa’s rules.

But Andrea Traverso, who drew up Uefa’s new regulations, said the rules did not take into account the wages of players contracted before June 2010.

Chelsea, whose wage bill is in excess of £150m, said it had revenues last season of £205.8m. Along with the wages clause, Uefa also allows clubs a limit of €45m (£39m) of losses over the first two years.

“Each club has done their own calculations and they probably have a little bit of a cushion,” said Mr Traverso. “At some point they would need to act with a certain degree of ­discipline.”

The January window saw a record £225m of deals, easily surpassing the £175m in the 2008 window, although much of this transfer spending was concentrated on a handful of clubs and players.