The impact of financial fair play discipline on professional soccer clubs: accounting profiles and critical remarks

The aim of the present contribution is to examine the economic-business impact of the recent discipline regarding financial fair play in relation to professional soccer clubs, which objective is to regulate the participation to sport competitions in the European frame. In the first part of our study the concept of fair play will be examined in a general perspective to understand its wide interdisciplinary implication, and a systematization of the complete requirements elaborated by the UEFA Licensing Manual will be synthetically proposed, together with the discipline of financial fair play. In the second part the economic-financial tool will be highlighted, with a focus on the innovations brought by the discipline in comparison with the traditional indicators on which the control system was based. In conclusion, there will be an examination on the limits of the discipline of financial fair play with reference to specific accounting and governance aspects in professional soccer clubs.