Fair Play ´loopholes´ worry Pardew

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew fears big clubs will find ‘loopholes’ to avoid UEFA’s anticipated Fair Play rules.

The rules will only allow clubs to spend what they earn and Pardew is fully behind the plans but is wary of the methods some clubs may use to escape sanctions.

“It should close the gap, but I’ve seen a worrying report on that and how the big clubs are beginning to manoeuvre around it,” Pardew told The Sunday Telegraph.

“They do it with commercial deals and loopholes and they will throw money at it in a way to find them. We’re going to fit in quite nicely to it so I hope the authorities are going to come down hard (on those who break the rules).

“Clubs like ourselves, Napoli, Athletic Bilbao could really come to the fore. If we’re going to say it’s fair, it has to be strict and it has to be policed.

“They’ve got to enforce suspensions (from European competition) if we want to even the market up. If we’re going to do it, do it properly and go hard at it.”

Newcastle can boost their chances of European qualification with victory over Liverpool on Sunday.

Luis Enrique and Andy Carroll swapped Newcastle for Liverpool in 2011 and Pardew believes they may now regret their decision.

“Finishing above them would certainly make the wine taste even nicer in the summer,” he said.

“I’m at a stage of my life where I appreciate the grass isn’t always greener, I don’t want to go anywhere else because I’m loving it here.

“The players who left, maybe they were too young to realise the grass could have got greener here. It’s too late now.”