Mr Popodopolous

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.

Appears that Sheffield Wednesday soft embargo lifted. This raises a range of puzzling and in some cases troubling questions. Has the ground transaction come through on the Land Registry yet? Why is there nothing in the cash flow statement about it? 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". 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. 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. 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.

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.

Tbh there are/have been quite a lot of City fans in Somerset- or borderline South Bristol/North Somerset. That is their local cricket team. Those who live in Bristol outright, it's the team with their HQ in the city (and county) of Bristol.

Which team plays in the CITY of Bristol? Exactly. That said, I'd sooner Somerset won the title than one of the usuals, Test playing grounds or the "traditional" counties.

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.

I stayed at work a bit late to follow it! As I did v Leicestershire- thrillers at Cheltenham it would seem.

Higgins the hero but Payne dealt the final blow! Had a feeling it would be close but under 250 I wasn't too optimistic. 3rd place, joint 2nd in a season where 3 go up- this revival has been nice to see! It's a mere platform but let hoping we shall build on it. Gloucs Looking at that state of play- I would say Lancashire especially given 3 go up are indeed going to pull away a bit. Leicestershire definitely look out of it and Worcestershire may well be- but beyond that it's 2 of 7- maybe 8 but definitely 7. Should be fun!! Specsavers County Championship Division Two 2019 Pos Team Played Won Lost Drawn Tied N/R Bat (Bonus) Bowl (Bonus) Deduct Points 1 Lancashire 10 5 0 5 0 0 23 29 0 157 2 Glamorgan 10 3 1 6 0 0 28 24 1 129 3 Gloucestershire 10 3 2 5 0 0 29 27 0 129 4 Northamptonshire 10 2 2 6 0 0 27 27 0 116 5 Durham 10 4 4 2 0 0 14 27 0 115 6 Middlesex 10 3 2 5 0 0 19 22 0 114 7 Derbyshire 10 3 4 3 0 0 18 28 0 109 8 Sussex 10 2 4 4 0 0 22 26 0 100 9 Worcestershire 10 2 5 3 0 0 18 27 0 92 10 Leicestershire 10 1 4 5 0 0 18 22 0 81

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.

Lead of 241 with 2 wickets left- not sure it's enough yet. 87 overs left- fair to say both sides will have ambitions for the win. 246 all out- 81 overs in which to get them. Or more hopefully for us to get 10 wickets.

A draw would take us into 3rd in fact- balance trying to win with trying not to lose, but the pitch doesn't sound so easy so hopefully before then- if indeed we're still batting. Cricinfo says 20.3 overs left- if we could tick along at 2.5-3 an over then we'd be nearly 250 on by the close. Have a bash in the morning- 80 overs to try to win?

That 50 partnership could've swung momentum- we're currently 175 ahead with 5 wickets left- without that last wicket partnership we'd be well ahead and wondering what time to declare.

4 batting and 3 bowling bonus points. At worst- talking worst case scenario that is if we lose we will be a mere 3 points off the top 3. Win and we'll be joint 2nd, separated only by draws/defeat ratio so a win is very important. Draw and we'll be nestled in between 2nd and the chasing pack albeit with a small margin ahead.

Follow on (not seen the score since tea so dunno but am guessing) now looks highly unlikely but I wouldn't have been so sure- given the heat and humidity Tuesday- wear them down in the field in the hot sun and stick them in- if we're not bowled out due to a deteriorating pitch- for somewhere for maybe a tricky 8-10 overs at the end. Danger when its hot is bowlers run ragged, run ragged in the field then it's your side who has that tricky 8-10 overs at the end and maybe a collapse- pitches don't often deteriorate in the same way as the past but maybe it's different atm.

Listening on the radio, sounds promising- a win would put us joint 2nd with Glamorgan- a full bonus point one would've been up to 2nd but given tomorrow will be hot best to try to strike early today, maybe try to be batting by tomorrow under the sun to set a major target.

348/8 after 100 overs- if we get 350-360 or so and the pitch/conditions are doing a bit that'll suit me. Would hope for 400+ of course but it's a win we need- we'd almost certainly get full bowling points if we win so.

The more sedate side, during what is mainly 20/20 season. Bit of a slow start and at times it was a dicy one, but at the end of Day 1 Gloucestershire 339/7 v Worcestershire- not bad! This is our game in hand and we must make it count. Outground so scoring can be quick but at Cheltenham I'm not so sure it's always the case.

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.

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.

Was mentioned indeed and covered- just, but we're still alive for top 3 and maybe even race for 2nd.

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!

Phew!! Wow that had its twists and turns- adds fun that way though. Logged out for superstition reasons as I noticed when I was logged in for a while earlier things were just drifting, no real wickets all a bit meh. I had nagging nervous doubts about 48 off 8 overs, especially with Abbas at one end- high quality international bowler. We're still alive though, promotion wise- that 2020 West Country derby prospect is alive...just.

5 down first ball after Tea but it doesn't sound like much is going on. @Super They do seem to have been. More than that I heard on commentary one of the days a suggestion that they may effectively give up- not in practice but give up in a meaningful sense, the Championship and focus largely on One Day and 20/20. Took a quick look and the 6 full seasons before this one, they've "won" the wooden spoon pretty often! Bottom of Division 2, 4 seasons out of 6. 6 down- into the tail now.

Agreed- I think reasonable chance Lancashire now start to pull away, certainly it's 2 of 8 for the remaining places though.

The platform has been laid. IF we win this one, we can look again at top 3, top 2- but more likely 3rd right now. Have to win though.