UEFA president Michel Platini has told RMC he will not consider changing financial fair play (FFP) rules despite the Premier League’s five billion pound TV deal, despite complaints from Ligue 1 clubs.
Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas recently asked UEFA to reconsider how they share out European competition prize money as a result of the English top flight’s new agreement.
The deal will see the team that finishes last in the Premier Legaue earn three times as much as the club that wins Ligue 1 during the three years of the deal between 2016 and 2019.
However, having been behind the introduction of FFP, Platini said the huge influx of revenue into the English game was simply the result of market forces at work.
Platini said: “Financial fair play has one principle: you spend the money you make. The English generate a lot of revenue, so they are going to spend a lot of money. The French should just sell their TV rights better.
“But by means of comparison, Anderlecht earn less than the team that finishes last in Ligue 1, but no-one bats an eyelid. People only do that when it’s the others who earn more than them.
“The French complain that the English have much more money than them. But they don’t complain that all the other European countries don’t have as much as them. I’m not going to get involved in national problems. I can’t get involved in that.”
While the Ligue 1 clubs’ own TV deal comes nowhere near the new 5.136 billion pounds ($7.8 billion) agreement, the division has seen its own revenue from broadcasters increase markedly.
With a share of 607 million euros (447 million pounds) over four years between 2012 and 2016, the 20 French top-flight sides will now have a pot of 748.5 million euros (551 million pounds) between them over the following four years through to 2020.
Platini suggested a change in the style of football played in Ligue 1 could improve investment, with English football having a reputation for having a fast tempo compared to its French counterpart which can be defensive.
“It’s perhaps necessary to remind certain coaches that you get three points for a win, and if you draw 0-0 it’s only a point,” the former European Footballer of the Year said.
“Play, open up! It’s more a question of mentality. There are very good players and forwards in France. I would like there to be a few more goals. I would like them to play a bit more, to attack.”