Bruce

Agreed though I don't know what the answer is. The current use of player amortization is not just inaccurate when it comes to estimating the financial viability of a club it is actively misleading more often than not. The big problem between the Premier and Championship is the gap in income so that when a relegated club comes down it either goes bankrupt if you don't support it financially or it gets a massive financial advantage over the other clubs from being supported. Smaller gap and the problem goes away. There is an argument that you should just let people spend what they want and if a club goes bust, it goes bust. In the US, you have a closed shop model which, ironically given the country, acts more like a socialised model of sporting finance. They solved the issue of relegation by not having it. It also makes for reliably good profits for the owners so it's hardly any surprise that various owners here would like to recreate that model. I don't think you can solve a problem that is caused by a huge gulf in income disparity between the Premier league and the Championship without reducing the gulf. If you go with wages to turnover, it's fine in the Premier because most clubs will be able to hold the line around 70%. In the Championship, as it is, we struggle to hold the line at 100%. Maybe you could do something like 70% wages to turnover but an owner is allowed to donate up to a certain amount, say £10m per year to count towards turnover. I think they may do something like this in Spain. Anyway, I won't pretend I have an answer but I do think that FFP/PSR is simply not fit for purpose and I strongly suspect that there is no way to tweak it to make it fit for purpose.

First time poster and Boro fan here though I went to comprehensive school in Yeovil in the 70s/80s and saw the odd game at Ashton Gate. Just want to say thanks for this thread as it has been a great education for me. I do the bookkeeping for my wife's businesses so I have a basic understanding of accounting principles. Wolves accounts have just been published on Swiss Ramble. What strikes me is just how dominant player amortisation is in profit and loss. I'm probably slow on the uptake here but I suddenly realised that if you have a squad book value of say £300m (pretty modest by Premier league standards) and you have players on 4-5 year contracts then you're losing £60m-£80m a year just through a bookkeeping convention that has very little to do with the actual financial health of the club. It means that FFP/PSR turns into an accounting board game of player trading rather than it's supposed aim of ensuring that clubs don't get involved in needlessly risky spending. Does seem to point towards player wages vs turnover being a much better guide. At 84% last year, that is way too high for Wolves but obviously healthier than the basket case that is the Championship.