Jurgen Klopp addresses Manchester City's FFP fight, Liverpool transfer plans and Bayern Munich domination
Jurgen Klopp has intimated that Bayern Munich’s domination of the Bundesliga is just as big a problem for football as Manchester City’s spending.
But the Liverpool boss insists it is the latter’s decision to fight the Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations that they signed up to that "makes no sense" to him.
Asked about that decision at his press conference on Tuesday, Klopp declared: “I don't think it was a good day for football”.
He also expressed a preference for the 50+1 ownership model in his native Germany, which ensures clubs must hold the majority of its own voting rights in order to compete in the top-flight.
However, when asked if Bayern’s run of eight consecutive titles represented a drawback of that arrangement, the Reds boss turned to questioning why City had fought so hard against rules they had previously agreed upon.
He said: “It’s not good for football but, in Germany, nobody would argue that Bayern deserves [anything else]. They have good partners, big partners, stuff like this, but they cannot do what they want.
“It’s not cool that Bayern wins it every year, and I don’t know when they didn’t win the title last time, but it’s a while ago. But if we agree on a specific rule and we say, ‘Open the gate, do whatever you want’, then that’s the situation, we all have to find solutions for that.
“But when we agree - that’s what we did - and you are not happy with FFP afterwards then that makes no sense as well. There are some rules and we should just try to stick with it.
“It’s a little bit like in Formula 1, if you open the door for private jets and say, ‘Let’s see who’s quicker’ then I think the private jet will still win! They are playing with the cars in a specific way so the best driver wins, go.
“It’s about competition. I said I’m happy that City got back in the Champions League, I don’t want them to lose money or whatever. It’s just, if there are rules, I think it makes sense that you all stick to them.”
Monday’s ruling is only likely to make Liverpool’s defence of their Premier League title all the more difficult given its implications in terms of freeing City to spend again this summer.
However, Klopp reiterated that his club cannot respond in kind as they continue to get to grip with the financial repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic.
He continued: “Strengthening the squad, you talk about like it is something I just have to ask for and somebody opens the well and away we go.
“To strengthen the squad you need money and these are uncertain times. Obviously, uncertain times means for some clubs we cannot do what we would do in non-uncertain times.
“Ask me can we develop the squad and it is probably possible, but only with real money.
“We have talents ourselves, big talents, and players who can make big steps in our squad. But buying now? Just go out and there and name whoever you want, whatever the player is, go for it? That is really difficult. It was always difficult.
“We did not invest a lot in the squad last year and that was before Covid. We do not know when supporters will be back in the stadium.
“Whoever knows, tell me and then we can plan with that. That is how the club has been led since before I was here.
“If we have money, we will spend. If we do not know if we will have money, we probably will not spend that much. That is how it is.”
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