On Thursday, the executive committee of European football's governing body is expected to approve new financial regulations which will ultimately throw clubs out of European competition who consistently do not operate within their means.
President Michel Platini's "Financial Fair Play" plan, approved in principle last September and fine-tuned by former Belgium Premier Jean-Luc Dehaene, would come into force in 2012 and impel clubs to break even over a three-year period.
"We're not trying to level the playing field," said a UEFA spokesman. "We want to make sure that the middle-ranked clubs don't go spending millions which they don't have as they try to compete with the big clubs."
"The underlying principle is that clubs cannot repeatedly spend more than their generated revenues."
The European Clubs Association (ECA), which includes all of the continent's biggest clubs, has supported and agreed to the proposals.
UEFA has become increasingly alarmed at the financial situation of the continent's clubs.
They are not the only club in the world's most followed football league where spending far outbalances their income.
"The many clubs across Europe that continue to operate on a sustainable basis are finding it increasingly hard to co-exist and compete with clubs that incur costs and transfer fees beyond their means and report losses year-after-year," he said.
"For the health of European club football, those many clubs that operate with financial discipline and sustainable business plans must be encouraged and this is why the entire football family requested and expressed full and unanimous support for the principles of financial fair play."
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