If I had my way, I would scrap financial fair play altogether and start afresh – Former Arsenal chief


 
 
 
 
 
 

Former Arsenal chief David Dein has been talking about financial fair play.

This is really good.

David Dein saying that the system is broken, that it is causing ‘havoc’ in the Premier League, that the situation is not ‘healthy’ when it comes to those who run the Premier League and the individual clubs themselves.

David Dein declaring ‘If I had my way, I would scrap financial fair play altogether and start afresh. It needs a re-think.’

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

If you recall, David Dein was excellent 12 months ago.

Pretty much the only major Arsenal figure who called out the shocking behaviour of the club, with how they went on after losing to Newcastle United in November 2023.

David Dein stated that if he had still been running Arsenal, there is no way that he would have allowed all that embarrassing behaviour to happen, from Mikel Arteta right through the club, the Gunners even released a public statement backing Arteta’s disgraceful post-match comments.

It really feels like we are at a crossroads now with financial fair play and change surely has to happen.

No rational person wants it to be a case of no rules, however, as David Dein makes clear, the current rules need to be torn up and the Premier League (and UEFA…) have to start again.

Former Arsenal chief David Dein talking to Sky Sports:

“There’s three areas which are a worry.

“Number one is the football calendar.

“The next is multi-club ownership. You have got over 200 clubs in Europe with multi-club ownership.

“The third is financial fair play, which is very topical.

“And that is a bother because it has caused a lot of friction, I would say, in fact havoc in the [Premier] League itself.

“So you have litigation between the [Premier] League and the clubs.

“You have litigation between the clubs and the clubs.

“It is not healthy.

“You need a happy environment between all the clubs and the management.

“And I am afraid, with financial fair play as it is, it is a huge problem.

“If I had my way, I would scrap financial fair play altogether and start afresh.

“It needs a re-think.”