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But such spending has raised questions about whether clubs would be able to comply with the Uefa financial fair play regulations.
BBC: Uefa warns clubs after deadline-day transfer spree
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With costs escalating and UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations which limit a club's annual losses on the horizon, it makes sense to invest in youth.
WSJ: Youth Academies: Soccer's Nature vs. Nurture Debate
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There's another major side effect to third-party ownership: Its impact on the new Financial Fair Play regulations that limit the losses clubs wishing to play in lucrative European competition can sustain.
WSJ: Third-Party Ownership: How to Stud a Soccer Player
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That is nothing close to what some of the big clubs in Europe would be willing to pay him and still stay the right side of UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations.
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Judging by the million-dollar football salaries, you'd be forgiven for thinking the UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations -- agreed in 2009 as a way of controlling clubs' ever-rising expenditure -- had done little to stem spending.
CNN: The world's best-paid sports teams
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UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations, which begin in 2014 and limit a club's losses over a given period, are turning soccer into a buyer's market in which habitual big spenders are unwilling to throw money around.
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Malaga were unavailable for comment when contacted by CNN, but the official line is that the sudden cost-cutting is to ensure the club complies with Financial Fair Play regulations, a set of rules implemented by European football's governing body aimed at ensuring teams live within their means.
CNN: Malaga's malady: When foreign ownership goes wrong
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"Clubs will have been reading the financial fair play rules and regulations very closely to look for areas that they can use in their favour, " added the lawyer, of the Brabners Chaffe Street firm.
BBC: Premier League clubs 'can meet Uefa financial rules'
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And with UEFA's Financial Fair Play a set of regulations that limit the amount of losses a club can sustain over a given period now in effect, Bayern's competitive advantage will only increase.
WSJ: Bayern Munich's Success Has a Downside for Soccer's Bundesliga
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Separately from the Uefa regulations, the Premier League is bringing in a form of financial fair play of its own.
BBC: Premier League clubs 'can meet Uefa financial rules'