UEFA urged to amend financial fair play policy

Paris: French football club Paris Saint-Germain and English Premier League's Manchester City have urged the European football governing body, UEFA, to make changes to its Financial Fair Play policy (FFP) rules.

The French Ligue 1 side and English Premiership champions, who were each fined 60 million euros by UEFA this summer for over-spending, asked the governing body not to penalise wealthy benefactors under FFP regulations, reports Xinhua.

At a meeting in Nyon, they also lobbied for three-year monitoring period of FFP to be extended to 10 years, giving the clubs more time to balance their books.

The clubs' representatives also urged UEFA to consider the big debts run up by teams like Manchester United and Real Madrid.

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas earlier said he'd support PSG in their bid to have financial fair play regulations amended, while his Bayern Munich counterpart Karl-Heinz Rummenigge criticised it severely.

A source close to UEFA was quoted by the French local media as saying: "For more than 15 minutes, PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi defended his club with strength and conviction. The exchange with Rummenigge was very tense."

The statement from UEFA, however, described it as a constructive meeting.

"Today's meeting again showed that the main concerned parties in Europe wish to work together in order to create a healthy financial context for club football," Michel Platini, UEFA president said.