Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho claims FFP helps Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid

Jose Mourinho

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has said that Uefa’s Financial Fair Play(FFP) rules are a contradiction and it allows the top European clubs to maintain a status quo. The Blues have been in red-hot form earlier this year, having won 10 out of 13 games they have played thus far and have pocketed 33 points so far. The Stamford Bridge-based spent as much as £95 million during the summer and bought Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas from Atletico Madrid and FC Barcelona respectively.

The 51-year-old manager said that when the FFP was first initiated, it was meant to ensure that all teams were given a fair deal. The former Real Madrid manager says that teams in equal conditions cannot compete with each other anymore.

“I think Financial Fair Play is a contradiction because, when football decided to go for Financial Fair Play it was exactly to put teams in equal conditions to compete,” he told Yahoo.

The two-time Champions League winner has been critical of the FFP before too saying Chelsea can’t buy big anymore unless they sell. Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona have all spent big money in the summer transfer window but are safe from the FFP rules.

The new clubs are at a disadvantage: Mourinho

But according to him, the FFP has instead acted as a cover for the major clubs, who are already financially secure.

“But what happened really with the Financial Fair Play is a big protection to the historical, old, big clubs, which have a financial structure, a commercial structure, everything in place based on historical success for years and years and years.

And the ‘new’ clubs - I call them ‘new’ clubs, those with new investment - they cannot put themselves quickly at the same level. Clubs with new owners cannot immediately attack the control and the domination of these big clubs, ” Mourinho said.

“Chelsea is not an old, historical, huge club - but it’s also not a club with a new owner. It’s a club with the same owner for more than 10 years. A club with a very important history, with great stability too. And at this moment I think we are just below them. I can say we are a very good club with the ambition to be a great club.”

The FFP was first initiated in 2009, with an aim to ensure that the money spent on buying players, among the European clubs was restricted. Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain were fined a sum of €60 million earlier for breaching the rules.