UEFA SET TO IMPOSE FINANCIAL FAIR PLAY RULES - Liverpool football club has recorded a loss of £49m after it abandoned plans to build a new stadium. The results just go to show that it is not easy having to compete with the financial might of Manchester City, who are in pole position to win the Premier League this year and mega rich thanks to the deep pockets of owner Sheikh Mansour who has poured nearly hundreds of millions into acquiring star players and developing new facilities. But the playing field may not be so uneven in future. New financial fair play rules come into force through European football's governing body, UEFA, the season after next.
Gary Rice, a partner with Beauchamps Solicitors and an expert in sports law, says that in contrast to the weak European economic situation, European soccer is booming with 13 billion in revenues last year. But he says that a disproportionate of this money is going straight into players' pockets. He says these new rules will require clubs to balance their books and reduce their losses. He predicts that the rules will be introduced gradually while a range of sanctions will also be gradually brought in over the years. These sanctions will range from a reprimand, reduction of points and disqualification from competitions. He says the credibility of UEFA is on the line and the rules will have to be enforced. ''The madness has to end,'' he states.
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MORNING BRIEFS - Quarterly results in this morning from nationalised British lender RBS show its subsidiary Ulster Bank recorded an operating loss of €372m euro over the first three months of the year. Ulster Bank said it was writing off €472m to cover expected losses primarily on property related loans. That is up compared to the final three months of last year but down on the £461m impairment charge for the first three months of 2011. 4.3% of Ulster Bank's homeloans are now categorised as impaired.
*** We had first quarter results from Aer Lingus yesterday showing traffic and revenues on the rise over the first three months of the year. Passenger figures just in for April appear to show that pattern continuing. Aer Lingus said its passenger numbers rose by 1.4% to 811,000 last month.
*** Reports this morning have named investment firm Hutchison Whampoa as the party which earlier this week had an indicative offer for Eircom knocked back by the company's examiner. Separate reports put the level of the offer at €2 billion in cash. One of the perceived issues with Hutchison as a potential acquirer of Eircom is that it owns the mobile network 3. If the examiner were to have accepted a bid for Eircom, the competition authority would have had to investigate the deal and so the process would have been delayed. Time, given Eircom is in court protection for 100 days under the examinership regime, is not a luxury the company can afford.
*** Shareholders at insurance company Aviva have revolted over executive pay. The company's pay policy was voted down at its AGM, prompting one of its largest shareholders to call for chief executive Andrew Moss' resignation overnight. His pay is up almost 7% to £2.6m excluding his entitlements from the company's long term bonus plan which are worth another £3.4m. Aviva's share price is down more than 30% in the last 12 months. Shareholder votes on company pay are advisory rather than binding in the UK so the company does not have to respect the vote. But Sly Bailey, the chief executive of media group Trinity Mirror, handed in her notice after intense criticism from one of her company's largest shareholders over her £1.7m pay.
