• Premier League

Chelsea & City 'in race to meet FFP regulations'

Richard Scudamore is confident Chelsea will just about meet FFP regulations © PA Photos

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Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has said he believes the league's clubs will all be able to meet UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules.

The measures - intended to ensure that clubs do not spend more than they earn in order to gain a competitive advantage - will come into force in the 2013-14 season, and say that clubs must break even over a three-year timespan.

That has led to speculation that Chelsea and champions Manchester City - two of the Premier League's biggest spenders in recent times - will struggle to meet the UEFA demands.

But Scudamore said he was confident that, although it would be "tight for a couple", the English top flight's clubs would "all get there".

"If you look at what has happened with Manchester City's latest accounts, when you see what has happened with Chelsea's, there has clearly been some action taken by those clubs to get themselves into the zone where they should be able to qualify," Scudamore told BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek.

"When you look at the way they are increasing their revenue and you look at the way we will be increasing their revenue through television deals, there is a direction of travel here that makes it eminently possible.

"If you look at the trajectory and direction of the revenue, it is about not making losses - and one of the easiest ways of not making a loss is to increase your revenue."

He acknowledged that both Chelsea and City would face a fight to meet the FFP rules, but added: "Probably we will see the clubs just about get there. It will be tight for a couple, but we will all get there.

"It will be tight for Chelsea and Manchester City. That is fairly obvious when you look at the sustained losses they have had over the last few years, but I know the executives there are working hard and are not ignoring it."

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