'Platini criticism unfair'
2008-07-25 13:23
David Mckay
Johannesburg - Manchester United CEO, David Gill, has labelled a proposal by Uefa president Michel Platini heavily indebted teams should not compete in future Champions League competitions "unfair".
Gill said the Uefa chief's comments were rooted in a potential adjustment to the Champions League team licensing system in terms of which competitors must provide evidence of, for example, their solvency. Other criteria are also used in the system.
Said Gill: "Michel Platini is an important person and we have to understand where he's coming from. But just to look at debt on its own is unfair," Gill said.
In June, Platini accused English football teams of "cheating" to win the Champions League. He was referring to the increase in the value of player transfers which allow only the richest teams to buy the best players.
However, certain teams had incurred heavy debt in order to compete in the transfer market. "Look at the debts of Chelsea and Manchester United," Platini was quoted in The TimesOnline to have said. "Fifa and Uefa owe it to themselves to fight this. Because today, it's those who cheat who win."
"The licensing requires forward-looking statements including "are you a going concern for the next 12 months,? said Gill. "I believe his [Platini's] comments refer to that although they don't sound like it."
Private
Gill said Manchester United would sternly resist attempts to have the team barred on this basis. "We'd be pretty vocal in opposing banning indebted clubs."
Manchester United was taken private by the Glazer family in 2005 in a 790 million pounds deal, a sum that was partly transferred to the club.
Last year, however, the family refinanced the debt. Roughly 361 million pounds is carried on Manchester United's balance sheet, according to a Financial Times article in July, 2006.
Gill said Chelsea had similar debt issues only that owner Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch, converted his debt into equity.
Gill said there was no pressure to change Manchester United's debt structure "although I must say it's not part of my responsibility."
"All we have to do is produce the profits to service the debt."