We Ain't Got No History: The Definitive Guide To UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

Earlier this year, at the start of the season, UEFA finally implemented its Financial Fair Play Regulations. This is an ambitious effort that has been years in the making. Unless you are intimately familiar with UEFA football then this new system can be daunting and confusing. But make no mistake, it can have a large impact on teams. So getting to understand the system is essential for any fan.

Fortunately, SB Nation's Chelsea blog, We Ain't Got No History, has produced one of the best articles we ever seen covering something this complex. Beautifully laid out with charts and graphs, and detailed explanations on what it all means, this is the definitive guide to understand these regulations.

The main thrust behind these regulations are two-fold, as explained in the article:

Essentially, UEFA is primarily concerned with correcting what it perceives to be two major problems that threaten to destroy everything that we know and love about the beautiful game.

First, UEFA has said that the "idea of financial fair play [is] to guarantee, among other things, competitive balance in European competitions."

Second, UEFA wants regulate clubs' spending in order to combat what it feels are excessive wages and inflated transfer fees. It also wants to reduce and eventually eliminate the financial losses clubs are assuming.

Beyond that simple explanation is a complex world of numbers, rules, loopholes and just about everything else you can imagine. Understanding this would be a fan's worst nightmare. At least now the UEFA fanbase stands a fighting chance of making sense out of it all.

Truly, the depth of this article is amazing. Authored by Jake Cohen, the work and effort put in to creating it is commendable in itself, but the job is does in explaining one of the most complex issues in sports is phenomenal.

Thanks Jake, and thanks We Ain't Got No History, for one of the best articles produced at SB Nation.