The Championship FFP Thread (Merged)

[Mr Popodopolous]

http://priceoffootball.com/selling-your-stadium-to-yourself-its-not-cricket/

A piece I'm looking forward to!

Not read it yet, but it apparently has one of those cryptic messages in there. This message is about Shaun Harvey by the looks so it's richly deserved!

[Busterrimes]

54 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

http://priceoffootball.com/selling-your-stadium-to-yourself-its-not-cricket/

A piece I'm looking forward to!

Not read it yet, but it apparently has one of those cryptic messages in there. This message is about Shaun Harvey by the looks so it's richly deserved!

Love it. “Shaun Harvey is A complete bellend”

[James54De]

 

How does this this work then? Anyone care to explain? 

[Coppello]

48 minutes ago, James54De said:

 

How does this this work then? Anyone care to explain? 

What is the source of this information? It's completely wrong as clubs are allowed to make deductions for certain expenditure such as on the youth academy and women's football. It's definitely incorrect!

[James54De]

4 minutes ago, Coppello said:

What is the source of this information? It's completely wrong as clubs are allowed to make deductions for certain expenditure such as on the youth academy and women's football. It's definitely incorrect!

Tweeted by the price of football account.

[chinapig]

10 minutes ago, James54De said:

Tweeted by the price of football account.

A fuller picture from the same source is here:

http://priceoffootball.com/tag/bristol-city/

Note the net sales of £13m are to appear in the latest accounts. Presumably the sales of Kelly and Eisa will appear next year.

[Coppello]

20 minutes ago, James54De said:

Tweeted by the price of football account.

Cheers, I've just found it:

It's actually a completely pointless post by him as the losses haven't been adjusted for infrastructure spend and therefore we are fine. We were probably closer than we should've been in 17/18 but we will register significantly better results in 18/19 because of the sales of Reid, Bryan and Flint. It's actually misleading and no doubt someone will start circulating it when we're complaining about the FFP dealing of Derby and Sheffield Wednesday etc. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

Kelly sale will fall in 2018/19 or? Eisa defintiely 2019/20 I believe.

I assume he's in the process of putting up the initial then going through and adjusting for infrastructure, youth, womens football etc.

[Davefevs]

2 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Kelly sale will fall in 2018/19 or? Eisa defintiely 2019/20 I believe.

I assume he's in the process of putting up the initial then going through and adjusting for infrastructure, youth, womens football etc.

Kelly into 18/19 definitely....along with Reid, Flint and Bryan.  18/19 is gonna look healthy.

Eisa into 19/20 definitely.

Surprised Price Of Football putting out a table like that, knowing it’s not accurate.  There are one or two clubs where we don’t know whether their owners are backing them for the full £13m or just working on £5m losses.

[Mr Popodopolous]

8 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Kelly into 18/19 definitely....along with Reid, Flint and Bryan.  18/19 is gonna look healthy.

Eisa into 19/20 definitely.

Surprised Price Of Football putting out a table like that, knowing it’s not accurate.  There are one or two clubs where we don’t know whether their owners are backing them for the full £13m or just working on £5m losses.

Yep agreed- we should see a profit in 2018/19 plus added to FFP exempt pushes up the FFP profit. If we don't go wildly overboard this year we can have a bit of a go, albeit probably less of one in 2020/21 too as that £24-25m (pre deductions) loss will drop off.

Think it's a simple response to a fans query and as a starting point, rather than an end one. i.e. Gross losses then adjusted accordingly- and adjusted again with the £5-13m differential, possibly based on capital injections at CH.

Plus indeed I suspect removal of non included items like debt write offs- takeovers for exceptional bad debts or clearance may qualify but then again may not.

Edited July 21, 2019 by Mr Popodopolous

[Mr Popodopolous]

This can go in Bolton thing too, and not looked over it properly but Administrators report for season 2018/19 seems to be in for Bolton.

Their losses for 2018/19, totalled £4,224,023, the Management Accounts anyway. No indication for 2017/18 but it may well have been lower- it's barely relevant in a sense anyway as they maybe going bust!

A textbook- if very unusual case- of how a side can likely keep within FFP but have significant solvency issues. Most are the other way round- Rich and willing owners but an inability to stick to FFP!

Courtesy of Kieran Maguire on his Twitter.

Edited July 24, 2019 by Mr Popodopolous

[1960maaan]

I've pretty much stopped reading this thread, some great work by you guys and from other sites but you get to the point where you ask if any of it matters.
Just for an example, Villa looked to be close to trouble. Then smoke & mirrors , ground sold to themselves and their predicted accounts go up in smoke ,while they spend £100m so far this summer. I would dearly love Villa to copy Fulham's return to the Championship to see what would happen, sadly can't see that happening.  I can see the EFL stopping the loophole, but probably only when a "smaller" team does it. 
Keep up the good work guys .

[downendcity]

7 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

I've pretty much stopped reading this thread, some great work by you guys and from other sites but you get to the point where you ask if any of it matters.
Just for an example, Villa looked to be close to trouble. Then smoke & mirrors , ground sold to themselves and their predicted accounts go up in smoke ,while they spend £100m so far this summer. I would dearly love Villa to copy Fulham's return to the Championship to see what would happen, sadly can't see that happening.  I can see the EFL stopping the loophole, but probably only when a "smaller" team does it. 
Keep up the good work guys .

Ask Bolton fans whether "any of it matters".

[chinapig]

5 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

I've pretty much stopped reading this thread, some great work by you guys and from other sites but you get to the point where you ask if any of it matters.
Just for an example, Villa looked to be close to trouble. Then smoke & mirrors , ground sold to themselves and their predicted accounts go up in smoke ,while they spend £100m so far this summer. I would dearly love Villa to copy Fulham's return to the Championship to see what would happen, sadly can't see that happening.  I can see the EFL stopping the loophole, but probably only when a "smaller" team does it. 
Keep up the good work guys .

Agreed, except the EFL is more likely to create more loopholes. That is what some clubs are after and if they are big enough they will get their way, with only Steve Gibson resisting I suspect.

[Mr Popodopolous]

11 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

I've pretty much stopped reading this thread, some great work by you guys and from other sites but you get to the point where you ask if any of it matters.
Just for an example, Villa looked to be close to trouble. Then smoke & mirrors , ground sold to themselves and their predicted accounts go up in smoke ,while they spend £100m so far this summer. I would dearly love Villa to copy Fulham's return to the Championship to see what would happen, sadly can't see that happening.  I can see the EFL stopping the loophole, but probably only when a "smaller" team does it. 
Keep up the good work guys .

I'm unsure tbh- since that Birmingham 9 points, clubs close to the limit or even ones who aren't so close appear to be reigning it in.

Derby to date have loaned Dowell and likely will be heavily reliant on loanees- for them the ground stunt appeared to form part of a restructuring.

Leeds who certainly are a big club are being cautious. Middlesbrough likely have more headroom than they're using. Sheffield Wednesday tried the ground sale and leaseback but appear to still be in a soft embargo.

Possible inconsistencies regarding the ground transaction maybe a reason.

Birmingham and QPR are taking it seriously, so too are Reading- only just out of soft embargo. Cardiff and Huddersfield have big headroom especially Huddersfield but both are, have so far been quite conservative in the market.

The big one here is Aston Villa- I cannot think clubs are happy about it, especially as they made no efforts to even slow down losses and this despite nearly £90m over 3 years in parachute payments!

I think another problem as well as the much discussed, documented actions of EFL- somewhere between incompetence and complicity some may say- is it's been done on the hoof a bit. There's now a hard and fast points tariff, before there was not.

[1960maaan]

22 minutes ago, downendcity said:

Ask Bolton fans whether "any of it matters".

I doubt Bolton are near running foul of FFP, their problems are slightly different and nothing to do with my point. I am fed up with so called, or self professed "big clubs" exploiting loopholes or just running rough shod over rules and getting away with it , while others try and stay within the rules.

11 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

I'm unsure tbh- since that Birmingham 9 points, clubs close to the limit or even ones who aren't so close appear to be reigning it in.

Derby to date have loaned Dowell and likely will be heavily reliant on loanees- for them the ground stunt appeared to form part of a restructuring.

Leeds who certainly are a big club are being cautious. Middlesbrough likely have more headroom than they're using. Sheffield Wednesday tried the ground sale and leaseback but appear to still be in a soft embargo.

Possible inconsistencies regarding the ground transaction maybe a reason.

Birmingham and QPR are taking it seriously, so too are Reading- only just out of soft embargo. Cardiff and Huddersfield have big headroom especially Huddersfield but both are, have so far been quite conservative in the market.

The big one here is Aston Villa- I cannot think clubs are happy about it, especially as they made no efforts to even slow down losses and this despite nearly £90m over 3 years in parachute payments!

I think another problem as well as the much discussed, documented actions of EFL- somewhere between incompetence and complicity some may say- is it's been done on the hoof a bit. There's now a hard and fast points tariff, before there was not.

Villa really seem to be taking the piss. TBF after Derby I don't blame them for going down the ground selling route, but I would love to know (and understand) how they can seem to ignore predicted accounts and then go on another massive spending spree. Good to see a few clubs trying to adhere to the rules, I get that like anything it takes time to get things right, but you'd like to see the EFL move much quicker to close loopholes as they appear. Be interesting to know how Fulham shape up. Their promotion year can't have been cheap, spent £100m last year , although Sessegnon's move to could help a little. 
Your comment "somewhere between incompetence and complicity" pretty well sums it up, and if I supported QPR , Brum or one of the others who have had any kind of penalty imposed, I would be more than a little annoyed.

[JoeAman08]

Just saw Birmingham City linked with a 6.5m CDM. How is it possible to be docked 9 points for breaches then 6 months later spend that amount on 1 player? Did the 15m for Adams dent their losses that much because we seem to have to sell 10m worth every summer just to start at even 0

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, JoeAman08 said:

Just saw Birmingham City linked with a 6.5m CDM. How is it possible to be docked 9 points for breaches then 6 months later spend that amount on 1 player? Did the 15m for Adams dent their losses that much because we seem to have to sell 10m worth every summer just to start at even 0

It’s probably spread over a couple of years.

[Mr Popodopolous]

11 hours ago, JoeAman08 said:

Just saw Birmingham City linked with a 6.5m CDM. How is it possible to be docked 9 points for breaches then 6 months later spend that amount on 1 player? Did the 15m for Adams dent their losses that much because we seem to have to sell 10m worth every summer just to start at even 0

The Birmingham situation.

Can't go into too much detail right now but it was reset to £13m + allowable losses for 2018/19 and 2019/20. Idea being that you couldn't punish them twice for the 2017/18 overspend.

In fairness to them they've been making cutbacks, in teems of fees, wages and amortisation. Jota was a big cost removed moving forward in terms of wages and amortisation. Morrison and Adams gone, Mahoney no longer there- sure there are others too. Clotet surely cheaper than Monk.

This new holding midfielder could be on a 4-5 year deal. Amortisation £1.6m or £1.3m per season- not exorbitant. Notice too he's from Dinamo Zagreb- wages out there really are not much so an uptick on that shouldn't be too hard without breaking the bank.

Edited July 26, 2019 by Mr Popodopolous

[Mr Popodopolous]

Appears that Sheffield Wednesday soft embargo lifted.

This raises a range of puzzling and in some cases troubling questions.

1. Has the ground transaction come through on the Land Registry yet?
2. Why is there nothing in the cash flow statement about it?
3. Is it possible that this transaction could have been backdated? Chansiri after all declared in December 2018 or was it January 2019 at a Fans Forum that if there was no promotion, they would be in "big trouble".
4. Following on from that, if the transaction was all in order and consistent with the right accounting period, why did it therefore take until July 16th 2019 to submit accounts to Companies House- that were due there on April 30th 2019? (Actually in reality before the extension of accounting period, they would have been due on February 28th 2019). July 11th 2019 was when it appeared on their website.
5. Even in accepting that businesses may well submit accounts late, why were they dated as signed off June 21st 2019- which was clearly after the date they were due at CH.
6. Surely the soft embargo should have been held in place pending an investigation into this transaction, the nature of it?

Forget Derby, this is the most questionable yet!

More questions than answers IMO- a lot of odd aspects here. If they don't go up this season though and the fixed asset loophole closed they will indeed be in fairly big trouble as their ill-gotten "profit" will fall off the books in a years time, moving forward that is into 2020/21. Unless they do the normal thing and you know, sell some players with value.

Reading below the line comments briefly, arrogant pricks a lot of their fans- but then I've always thought of them as a bighead club, entitlement. This year's Aston Villa? Hope this very interesting manoeuvre blows up in your face- not as bad as Aston Villa of course but then can't remember a Championship club that was.

 

Edited July 26, 2019 by Mr Popodopolous

[Davefevs]

Sir Les now weighing in. QPR have put a complaint into EFL. 

 

[chinapig]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Sir Les now weighing in. QPR have put a complaint into EFL. 

 

And still football journalists continue to ignore the issue. It couldn't be because it would take some actual work as opposed to regurgitating stuff from Pogba's Instagram and other such fluff surely?

[Mr Popodopolous]

On 27/07/2019 at 10:18, chinapig said:

And still football journalists continue to ignore the issue. It couldn't be because it would take some actual work as opposed to regurgitating stuff from Pogba's Instagram and other such fluff surely?

I think it's that partly.

Also think it's that a good chunk of the UK football media they are at best indifferent, at worst hostile- in a fair few but certainly not all cases- to FFP. Maybe it's the same abroad, I don't know. If it's circumvented in many cases therefore, it's seen as a bit 'meh'.

The EFL lifting this soft embargo considering all of the puzzling questions around the transaction though, is a new low. Even for them.

We need Man City to get a CL ban, to put the message home a bit with the UK football media- PSG too but focusing specifically on UK it'd need to be Man City with us, PSG too of course- as they seem much the same in this respect as Man City.

1 season and maybe 2 but certainly one season. AC Milan who are a historic giant of the game with 7 European Cups/CLs is a good start albeit that was partially a voluntary agreement.

Interesting to note as well that within the last 9 months, UEFA have admitted there are loopholes that need to be looked at, whereas just lately FIFA have spoken about loosening FFP.

Edited July 28, 2019 by Mr Popodopolous

[chinapig]

30 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

I think it's that partly.

Also think it's that a good chunk of the UK football media they are at best indifferent, at worst hostile- in a fair few but certainly not all cases- to FFP. Maybe it's the same abroad, I don't know. If it's circumvented in many cases therefore, it's seen as a bit 'meh'.

The EFL lifting this soft embargo considering all of the puzzling questions around the transaction though, is a new low. Even for them.

We need Man City to get a CL ban, to put the message home a bit with the UK football media- PSG too but focusing specificlaly on UK it'd need to be Man City with us, PSG too of course- as they seem much the same in this respect as Man City.

1 season and maybe 2 but certainly one season. AC Milan who are a historic giant of the game with 7 European Cups/CLs is a good start albeit that was partially a voluntary agreement.

Interesting to note as well that within the last 9 months, UEFA have admitted there are loopholes that need to be looked at, whereas just lately FIFA have spoken about loosening FFP.

The question you have to ask in circumstances like this, and the way controls over agents were introduced then swept away 5 minutes later is another example, is who benefits? In other words, follow the money.

To use your example, the UK media has been largely silent on the Man City issue. The bottom line is they are not going to upset the various cash cows they benefit from, however corrupt they are. In their defence, most fans don't give a toss either, particularly if their club is a beneficiary.

So stuff like this is left to people like Football Leaks but of course the football authorities combined with the Portuguese public authorities to turn the law on Rui Pinto. Again, virtual silence from the media.

[Mr Popodopolous]

I'll answer the post by @chinapig later but yeah- this statement gives serious doubt about transactions and accounting period or the consistency therein. Sheffield Wednesday website in mid January of this year aka 2019- remember the Transaction of the ground was meant to have occurred/been completed in the accounting period to May 31st 2018- latterly July 31st 2019!

 

Quote

 

Dejphon Chansiri statement

16 January 2019

 

 

 

 

Since I bought our club in February 2015 I have always made every decision in the best interests of Sheffield Wednesday. Sometimes those decisions have not been popular, which I understand, but the intention was and is always the same – for the good of Wednesday. The decision I am making now with this statement is also not easy but something I need to do.

I have always tried to do my best, which I will continue to do for every day, week and year I remain chairman. Sometimes, given the restraints that Championship clubs must work within, every effort is not enough. The embargo we were under filled me with sadness, it still does, I never wanted this as Wednesday owner and I apologise to our supporters. 

Many people have suggested that I invested the amount of money I did – and continue to do – in order to achieve promotion to the Premier League. But this is not correct. I invested these sums to stay in the Championship, to ensure we would have the best chance of avoiding relegation. If promotion came, then great, but building from the bottom gave us the best opportunity of getting to the top.

 

The Championship is incredibly competitive and gets stronger and stronger each year with the parachute money from the Premier League clubs coming into this division. Owners who have not spent big sums before are now doing so just to remain competitive and first of all, stay in this division and we must challenge with them and others in the division.

At fans’ forums and Steering Group meetings, I have warned of the problems we will face with the Profitability and Sustainability regulations if we did not get promoted. The same is true as I write today. Unless we achieve promotion this season, we will again experience problems. I said it then and I say it now because I do not wish for bad surprises for our supporters. I wish to say it how it is and that way it is clear on both sides.

To make our situation 100% clear, we are not under any kind of embargo right now. However, if our problems cannot be solved by March when we submit our accounts to the EFL, another soft embargo is inevitable. This will become a full embargo if again the problems cannot be solved at the end of the financial year.

I never ask for anything more than the best support possible from our loyal fans and with the Profit and Sustainability regulations, I repeat I cannot solve the problems we have as a club alone. We have to solve these issues together as these problems are not going to disappear. The solution we worked so hard to achieve this year will not matter next year, when the same problems will arise if we do not get promoted.

Normally you cannot spend like this every year, probably just two years maximum given the regulations in place. But our spending extended to three years and if you do not break P&S in that time, it is inevitable in the future, so I believe other clubs will find themselves in a similar situation this year and next and in the years ahead. It was very hard to accept any kind of embargo because when I arrived here I came to do better, make things better for everyone. 

Many fans have told me they are scared that if I leave Wednesday, which would break my heart, our club will be worse than before but to those fears, I say do not worry. Whatever I decide now or in the future, Sheffield Wednesday will be in a stronger position than before my time, that is my word.

I have never thought about worth or value to myself or my family since I am here, I have never had one penny from Wednesday. I have always put our fans first and never thought about business because that would conflict with the ambitions and emotions everyone connected to our club has. Throughout my life, I have never done business before like this. Normally, a business will think of profit first but if we want to stay in this division and also have a chance of promotion, this is impossible and I understand that.

Some people think I want promotion to make a profit but the investment required to stay in the Premier League makes that impossible and it was never my intention anyway. It would probably take four or five years in the Premier League to break even and then more before anyone could even think about profit. So as an owner, until many years down the line, I lose either way.

But I do not have a problem with that, I knew this would be the case when I bought our club. I could have made a profit in the Championship already if I really wanted to by not buying the players or buying players and selling them for much more. But I never wanted to do that. I wanted the best for our fans and our club because I have commitment and responsibility as the chairman and owner. If I thought that way, it would be much easier to manage Wednesday. 

Some have said why not spend smaller amounts of money and still aim for promotion but football has changed a lot in recent years and how many clubs will realistically achieve that target? There will be some examples as this is football but very few. That level of investment went into Wednesday 15 years and more before my time without success when it was not so hard as it is today.

So with the problems we faced, I believe many people thought they were not true as there are too many experts on Sheffield Wednesday who are really no experts at all. I have said for a long time that I cannot do this by myself but if I could, I would. Money is not the issue here, it is all about revenue, that is the difference. I have done everything I can in my power. This is why I launched Club 1867 last time and this is why I will launch a new version of Club 1867 again, with pricing and structures to enable as many fans as possible to help avoid the problems we could face again. No one fully understands how hard it has been for me to solve the problems last time, something I never wish to experience alone ever again.

If someone asks me to not spend and do like in the past, I cannot accept that because then there is a risk of relegation and no chance at all of promotion. That is not the ambition I have for Sheffield Wednesday. It is not the ambition of our fans. But I have the responsibility. I want to know how many people could manage this club with responsibility because it so easy to do it without. I believe that if anyone else managed our club, they would think about profit.

I have learned a lot about football in the time I have been here. Some people right now think the worst of me but I know that had we been promoted in the first two years when we reached the play-offs I would have been the hero, the coach would have been the hero, recruitment and other negative things would never have been brought into question. I would like to say once more that I have used the same recruitment team since I started, other than the change of the coaches, of course. If anyone suggests someone who has now left was the one responsible for recruitment I can categorically say that is not true or they would still be here.

Since I am here I have wanted trust. I want our fans to show it is not just my money they want me to spend. Now is the time for everyone to come together and show trust and not just give the word. We can make our club the very best. I have never asked anyone who cannot afford to buy anything for even one penny. To those who invested in Club 1867, I say thank you for supporting me without thinking of worth. I can also think of worth myself but I do not wish to do that, I want to finish the job I started but we have a problem that we can only solve together. If our fans really trust me, we will go together for the next part of the 1867 campaign and I truly hope we will be a great team.

 

 

 

https://www.swfc.co.uk/news/2019/january/dejphon-chansiri-statement/

A few quick takeaways here.

1. BIG FFP problems.
2. January 2019- still in the mess- as per Chansiri himself.
3. Accounting Period ended May 31st 2018 and latterly July 31st 2018.
4. Accounts for that season i.e. 2017/18 dated 21 days and a month after the revised Accounting Period for 2017/18 or 3 months and 21 days after they were due at CH.

He could have planned at all as a big surprise I guess- pretending at meeting after meeting that they're in trouble, big trouble and have done this all along or done enough of it all along by May 31st/July 31st 2018.

@Coppello You are our resident football accounting expert- would and I'm sure I'm speaking for us all, be very interested in any thoughts on the Sheffield Wednesday transaction/Hillsborough sale and leaseback in light of all of the interesting aspects?

Edited July 29, 2019 by Mr Popodopolous

[Coppello]

On 29/07/2019 at 16:56, Mr Popodopolous said:

I'll answer the post by @chinapig later but yeah- this statement gives serious doubt about transactions and accounting period or the consistency therein. Sheffield Wednesday website in mid January of this year aka 2019- remember the Transaction of the ground was meant to have occurred/been completed in the accounting period to May 31st 2018- latterly July 31st 2019!

 

https://www.swfc.co.uk/news/2019/january/dejphon-chansiri-statement/

A few quick takeaways here.

1. BIG FFP problems.
2. January 2019- still in the mess- as per Chansiri himself.
3. Accounting Period ended May 31st 2018 and latterly July 31st 2018.
4. Accounts for that season i.e. 2017/18 dated 21 days and a month after the revised Accounting Period for 2017/18 or 3 months and 21 days after they were due at CH.

He could have planned at all as a big surprise I guess- pretending at meeting after meeting that they're in trouble, big trouble and have done this all along or done enough of it all along by May 31st/July 31st 2018.

@Coppello You are our resident football accounting expert- would and I'm sure I'm speaking for us all, be very interested in any thoughts on the Sheffield Wednesday transaction/Hillsborough sale and leaseback in light of all of the interesting aspects?

@Mr Popodopolous, thanks but you clearly wear that crown! In all honesty, I've taken a bit of a backseat regarding Championship FFP as I've found the whole thing a little disheartening and feel like we're part of a losing battle. I will have a little read of this over the coming days and share my thoughts. The whole thing is an absolute shambles though no doubt!

[Mr Popodopolous]

20 hours ago, Coppello said:

@Mr Popodopolous, thanks but you clearly wear that crown! In all honesty, I've taken a bit of a backseat regarding Championship FFP as I've found the whole thing a little disheartening and feel like we're part of a losing battle. I will have a little read of this over the coming days and share my thoughts. The whole thing is an absolute shambles though no doubt!

Haha thanks, but you working at a club or having worked at one I thought? Well that makes you a technical expert.

Yeah, know what you mean- but I have a bit of hope in how spending has tailed off a bit this summer, possible the 9 points could have given teams close to the line pause for thought. Whichever administrator allowed stadia sale and leaseback though...I struggle to see how the Sheffield Wednesday one is/was permitted especially given the discrepancy in accounting periods or should I say the possible discrepancy at least.

This you might be interested in- saw it yesterday online. We know and all have discussed most of it at length on this thread but up to 5 clubs under soft embargoes is interesting! As well as a large number placing a cap or a close watch on expenditure.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/championship-clubs-are-breaching-efl-spending-rules-in-bid-to-reach-premier-league-bonanza-a4201466.html

Edited July 31, 2019 by Mr Popodopolous

[Try Again coatpile]

I don't post much, but just wanted to say how much I appreciate everything that goes into this thread. I may not understand all of the technicalities, but it's great to get an insight into how the outside constraints on finances work, and how the governance follows (or mostly doesn't!!) on from that. I can't imagine there are many forums (fora!!?!) with this level of discussion. Thanks again, TAc

[chinapig]

28 minutes ago, Try Again coatpile said:

I don't post much, but just wanted to say how much I appreciate everything that goes into this thread. I may not understand all of the technicalities, but it's great to get an insight into how the outside constraints on finances work, and how the governance follows (or mostly doesn't!!) on from that. I can't imagine there are many forums (fora!!?!) with this level of discussion. Thanks again, TAc

Well said, hear, hear!

[Leveller]

On 27/07/2019 at 10:18, chinapig said:

And still football journalists continue to ignore the issue. It couldn't be because it would take some actual work as opposed to regurgitating stuff from Pogba's Instagram and other such fluff surely?

On the other hand Alan Nixon, as an example, regularly tweets that FFP is pointless, and that owners that can afford to spend should be allowed to. He argues that EFL are punishing those that have the money, while allowing people like the owners at Bolton and Bury to ruin clubs, because they can’t cover the losses.

I’m not sure I agree, and it doesn’t excuse breaking the rules that do exist, but he doesn’t ignore the issue, and it’s a valid point of view.