Reports are out claiming that Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has slammed UEFA’s Financial Fair Play laws.
The French tactician has always been a fierce advocate of stricter rules to ensure clubs operate within their means but accepts it has proved unworkable.
He said: “It never worked completely. It had a positive influence on some aspects of the job but it was never completely in place. The only thing you can say is before it was completely in place it is already changed.
“UEFA does not have the same power as had 10-15 years ago because everything can be challenged and that makes it more difficult for rigid rules because there is always a contradiction of freedom of investment under European rules. Very intelligent people have been working on that problem.
“At the start to me it look very logical and easy to apply but when they wanted to push it in it was more difficult. They took investment in the youth system out of FFP and it created huge investment in the youth system and the wages came up as well.
“It will not affect us at all because always spend money we have. It will affect clubs who never respected FFP.
“I believe it’s down to potential investment of English clubs. It looks like international pressure to make the rules more flexible because of potential investors in other countries. The fact that the TV contract in England has pushed some other clubs in Europe to make it better for them to compete.
“Some clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona had resources to compete at the top level. We have more competitors to winning, it might be more open.”