On the eve of the Champions League, Michel Platini gave an extended interview to the Mail’s Martin Samuel. Samuel has long been an outspoken critic of FFP and certainly put the UEFA head on the spot.  Platini was left to struggling to justify some elements of FFP (although, as Platini pointed out, English isn't his first language). The full transcript of the interview really is an excellent read – click here.

Following Bayern’s win, a number of football pundits suggested that FFP would make it impossible for teams like Borussia Dortmund to challenge in future (one of Martin Samuel’s lines of debate).  On the day after the final, Richard Whittall (), Toronto-based editor of the Counter Attack blog, published a terrific article outlining the counter-argument. Again, I can heartily recommend it to anyone interested in debate on how FFP will shape football.

And, to join up the three articles, it is well-worth reading a piece by Zach Slaton.  One of the issues that Samuel raises with Platini is the impact that the vast Champions League revenue continues to have on football. Clubs that routinely qualify for the group stage of the Champions League can usually expect to receive around £25m+. Over time this distorts competition in the domestic leagues and tends to perpetuate a position whereby the big clubs continue to prosper and dominate their league. Sports statistician Zach Slaton () analyses the impact that an annual play-off for the league title would have had in the Premier League. Slaton explains; "If UEFA and any of its constituent national federations and leagues want to find a less intrusive way to inject less predictability into league outcomes, perhaps they should start with a playoff instead". Click here to read the article.