Championship FFP- future changes?

[Mr Popodopolous]

Report tonight of a beefed up regime on the way. Hopefully it will be in conjunction with the Revenue issues, ie Parachute Payment problems being sorted.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/12/06/efl-create-independent-financial-unit-derby-county-woe/

EFL are looking to set up an 'Independent Financial Unit' with more real time monitoring and refers to a salary cap or somesuch.

It also refers to club going into administration and looking to disincentives in this area. I remember Nixon mentioned the idea of an extra 6 pts for unsuccessful appeals and something about who pays for the appeal.

If combined with the positives of the current regime and the Parachute Payment issue being sorted it could really tighten things up.

[Davefevs]

Argh, paywall….anyone got the full transcript?  Thanks.

[RedRoss]

EFL to create Independent Financial Unit after Derby County woe

Exclusive: A form of wage control is also set to be introduced in an effort to prevent sides breaking financial fair play rules

By Ben Rumsby 6 December 2021 • 4:38pm

The English Football League is launching an Independent Financial Unit in a bid to prevent a repeat of the crisis to engulf Derby County and limit the scope of a Government-appointed regulator.

Telegraph Sport can reveal the EFL is also planning to introduce a form of wage control in the Championship and real-time monitoring of second-tier clubs’ finances similar to systems already in place in Leagues One and Two.

League chiefs are confident this, coupled with the new IFU, will help stop Championship sides breaking financial fair play rules and spending more on wages than they make in revenue.

On Monday, the EFL issued a job advert for the head of the IFU, which is also being set up in a bid to end the kind of lengthy and costly legal battles over rule breaches committed by Derby and other clubs.

The unit will also police club takeovers and administer the EFL’s owners’ and directors’ test with the aim of convincing the Government those powers should remain within the game and not be transferred to an independent regulator.

Trevor Birch, the EFL’s chief executive, told Telegraph Sport plans to create the IFU predated the Government’s Fan-Led Review of Football Governance.

He also said it was important the league took action to prevent more clubs following Derby into administration while legislation – which could take months or years to come into force – to bring in an independent regulator was being drawn up.

“We think we need to act now,” he told Telegraph Sport, stating he aimed to have the IFU in place in time for next season.

Stopping Championship clubs spending beyond their means could compound the competitive advantage already enjoyed by those receiving Premier League parachute payments and the EFL was last night in talks with the world’s richest league over a new model to replace them.

The EFL has been pushing for the two organisations to pool their broadcast income, which would see lower-league clubs share 25 per cent of the total pot.

That would still leave the Premier League by far the richest league in Europe.

The fan-led review proposed a stamp-duty style tax on top-flight transfer fees but Birch said the EFL would prefer a less “arbitrary” redistribution model.

Dismissing arguments by the likes of Aston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow that Tesco would not bailout a local corner shop, Birch said: “Having a strong EFL is important, ultimately, to the Premier League.

“That’s not wanting to take anything away from the Premier League because we all realise its value and its huge success and would want to support that. We just feel that there would be benefit in having a stronger and sustainable EFL.”

[Clevedon Red]

https://www.efl.com/siteassets/jobs/efl---director-of-club-financial-reporting-17-11_cb-6.12.2021.pdf
 

here is said job advert as referenced in the article.

[ExiledAjax]

Not a coincidence that this kind of thing comes out soon after the Gov recommends/threatens a regulator being imposed on football. I suspect this has been in the works ever since that review was announced. Absolutely an attempt by the EFL to retain oversight of the financial side of stuff. Now, to be fair to them, the Review did say that they should be given a chance to sort out stuff like finances and parachute payments, and if it takes something like the review to force them to do it then that is good as well. Still, it seems pretty clear that this isn't being done through the kindness of their own hearts.

[Mr Popodopolous]

Although @ExiledAjax I do think that the EFL have been slowly moving in the right direction for a couple of years now ie predating the Independent Regulator bit. Am sure they first advertised for a similar role in late 2019, will see if I can dig it out.

Parry is a lot better than Harvey and Birch also seems decent.

Tbe way that they handled the Derby situation was at least from early Summer 2021, outstanding in some respects. The application of the Embargo as accounts not agreed was a strong move, Reading too to some extent although not happy about their two Chelsea loanees especially. Still a deduction with a second one hanging over them should help.

Have questions about Stoke as it stands, maybe Blackburn too...but the application of Budgetary limits as leverage is excellent, and not something we have always seen.

Edited December 6, 2021 by Mr Popodopolous

[Davefevs]

Purslow is everything that is wrong with football.  Exploit loopholes in the rules and then when he gets in with the big boys wants the door shut behind him.

Gartside (RIP) was also after his own interests when Bolton were in danger of relegation and he wanted to create a PL2 with no promotion/relegation to the EFL.

Annoys the hell out of me.

[chinapig]

8 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Purslow is everything that is wrong with football.  Exploit loopholes in the rules and then when he gets in with the big boys wants the door shut behind him.

Gartside (RIP) was also after his own interests when Bolton were in danger of relegation and he wanted to create a PL2 with no promotion/relegation to the EFL.

Annoys the hell out of me.

If they thought they could get away with it the Premier League would become a closed shop with member clubs appointed.

In any event it's rich and powerful so the Crouch recommendations will likely be watered down to it's benefit.

[ScottishRed]

Until they sort out the parachute payments this is simply tinkering around the edges.

FFP, or whatever they call it now, is simply a mechanism to ensure that the clubs that benefit from massive TV payouts remain in the EPL, although now and again they may need to spend a season in the Championship.

Think about this, SL could wake up tomorrow and decide to give Nigel £100m to spend next month, he can afford to,  but is not allowed to - not saying that he would, but that is wrong.

The upshot is that TV money has ruined the game both in this country and elsewhere.

[Port Said Red]

2 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Report tonight of a beefed up regime on the way. Hopefully it will be in conjunction with the Revenue issues, ie Parachute Payment problems being sorted.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/12/06/efl-create-independent-financial-unit-derby-county-woe/

EFL are looking to set up an 'Independent Financial Unit' with more real time monitoring and refers to a salary cap or somesuch.

It also refers to club going into administration and looking to disincentives in this area. I remember Nixon mentioned the idea of an extra 6 pts for unsuccessful appeals and something about who pays for the appeal.

If combined with the positives of the current regime and the Parachute Payment issue being sorted it could really tighten things up.

What is being suggested for the parachute payments? I can't imagine the turkeys voting for xmas and reducing them, so is there going to be a different criteria applied by the EFL as to how they are accounted for?

[Curr Avon]

10 hours ago, RedRoss said:

EFL to create Independent Financial Unit after Derby County woe

Exclusive: A form of wage control is also set to be introduced in an effort to prevent sides breaking financial fair play rules

By Ben Rumsby 6 December 2021 • 4:38pm

The English Football League is launching an Independent Financial Unit in a bid to prevent a repeat of the crisis to engulf Derby County and limit the scope of a Government-appointed regulator.

Telegraph Sport can reveal the EFL is also planning to introduce a form of wage control in the Championship and real-time monitoring of second-tier clubs’ finances similar to systems already in place in Leagues One and Two.

League chiefs are confident this, coupled with the new IFU, will help stop Championship sides breaking financial fair play rules and spending more on wages than they make in revenue.

On Monday, the EFL issued a job advert for the head of the IFU, which is also being set up in a bid to end the kind of lengthy and costly legal battles over rule breaches committed by Derby and other clubs.

The unit will also police club takeovers and administer the EFL’s owners’ and directors’ test with the aim of convincing the Government those powers should remain within the game and not be transferred to an independent regulator.

Trevor Birch, the EFL’s chief executive, told Telegraph Sport plans to create the IFU predated the Government’s Fan-Led Review of Football Governance.

He also said it was important the league took action to prevent more clubs following Derby into administration while legislation – which could take months or years to come into force – to bring in an independent regulator was being drawn up.

“We think we need to act now,” he told Telegraph Sport, stating he aimed to have the IFU in place in time for next season.

Stopping Championship clubs spending beyond their means could compound the competitive advantage already enjoyed by those receiving Premier League parachute payments and the EFL was last night in talks with the world’s richest league over a new model to replace them.

The EFL has been pushing for the two organisations to pool their broadcast income, which would see lower-league clubs share 25 per cent of the total pot.

That would still leave the Premier League by far the richest league in Europe.

The fan-led review proposed a stamp-duty style tax on top-flight transfer fees but Birch said the EFL would prefer a less “arbitrary” redistribution model.

Dismissing arguments by the likes of Aston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow that Tesco would not bailout a local corner shop, Birch said: “Having a strong EFL is important, ultimately, to the Premier League.

“That’s not wanting to take anything away from the Premier League because we all realise its value and its huge success and would want to support that. We just feel that there would be benefit in having a stronger and sustainable EFL.”

Blige. Common sense, at last!

[chinapig]

14 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Purslow is everything that is wrong with football.  Exploit loopholes in the rules and then when he gets in with the big boys wants the door shut behind him.

Gartside (RIP) was also after his own interests when Bolton were in danger of relegation and he wanted to create a PL2 with no promotion/relegation to the EFL.

Annoys the hell out of me.

The most ludicrous comment was from Angus Kinnear (Leeds CEO):

Enforcing a philosophy akin to Maoist collective agriculturalism (which students of The Great Leap Forward will know culminated in the greatest famine in history) will not make the English game fairer, it will kill the competition which is its very lifeblood.

So Tory MP Tracey Crouch is in fact a secret Maoist. Who knew?

Nice bit of satire here from Jonathan Liew:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2021/dec/07/football-people-led-review-governance

[HappyClapper]

15 minutes ago, chinapig said:

The most ludicrous comment was from Angus Kinnear (Leeds CEO):

Enforcing a philosophy akin to Maoist collective agriculturalism (which students of The Great Leap Forward will know culminated in the greatest famine in history) will not make the English game fairer, it will kill the competition which is its very lifeblood.

So Tory MP Tracey Crouch is in fact a secret Maoist. Who knew?

Nice bit of satire here from Jonathan Liew:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2021/dec/07/football-people-led-review-governance

Thanks @chinapig brilliant piece. I’m assuming you are also a Maoist.

[chinapig]

7 minutes ago, HappyClapper said:

Thanks @chinapig brilliant piece. I’m assuming you are also a Maoist.

Actually I have been sentenced to a year in a Premier League Cultural Re-Education Camp.

[Pezo]

Tin foil hat time, I really don't like this regulation on top of regulation - what's the unintended consequence of this set of regulation going to be?

The problem stems from a massive disparity between the TV money given to prem sides v championship sides - until that's addressed everything else is just poking at the latest issue caused by the last round of controls.

The one power I would like to see is the ability for clubs to asset strip owners that willfully overspend, some take the piss because of the limited liability.

[Mr Popodopolous]

On 06/12/2021 at 21:17, Port Said Red said:

What is being suggested for the parachute payments? I can't imagine the turkeys voting for xmas and reducing them, so is there going to be a different criteria applied by the EFL as to how they are accounted for?

Think that the EFL and PL are in talks.

Hopefully the way forward would be to abolish them, and add them to the solidarity payments and Championship TV money and split between 24 equally.

How much that would come to per club I'm unsure, but it would even it up.

Hopefully if the two Leagues cannot agree, an Independent Regulator would impose something like this.

[Mr Popodopolous]

On 07/12/2021 at 10:59, Pezo said:

Tin foil hat time, I really don't like this regulation on top of regulation - what's the unintended consequence of this set of regulation going to be?

The problem stems from a massive disparity between the TV money given to prem sides v championship sides - until that's addressed everything else is just poking at the latest issue caused by the last round of controls.

The one power I would like to see is the ability for clubs to asset strip owners that willfully overspend, some take the piss because of the limited liability.

Agreed. 

 

On 06/12/2021 at 20:14, Davefevs said:

Purslow is everything that is wrong with football.  Exploit loopholes in the rules and then when he gets in with the big boys wants the door shut behind him.

Gartside (RIP) was also after his own interests when Bolton were in danger of relegation and he wanted to create a PL2 with no promotion/relegation to the EFL.

Annoys the hell out of me.

I'm no fan of Purslow, not liked him for some time. Although, depressingly when push comes to shove what % of club CEOs wouldn't express similar views when they went from close to FFP trouble to looking for a loophole.

I would hope that the EFL will still look strongly at Aston Villa, whenever they return.

I hope they take note of some of his comments to remind them about Aston Villa, keep the motivation there.

[ExiledAjax]

14 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Think that the EFL and PL are in talks.

Hopefully the way forward would be to abolish them, and add them to the solidarity payments and Championship TV money and split between 24 equally.

How much that would come to per club I'm unsure, but it would even it up.

Hopefully if the two Leagues cannot agree, an Independent Regulator would impose something like this.

Yep, Crouch gave them until the end of this year to come up with a new distribution system to replace PP and the current solidarity system. If they fail then she will include that power when attempting to establish the regulator. The regulator would then impose it on football clubs.

Should see something announced in the next fortnight I'd hope.

 

[Rocking Red Cyril]

On 06/12/2021 at 19:21, Clevedon Red said:

https://www.efl.com/siteassets/jobs/efl---director-of-club-financial-reporting-17-11_cb-6.12.2021.pdf
 

here is said job advert as referenced in the article.

Ok maybe   I out of  touch . But this job to look at players wages and financial misconduct. Is paying 85000-95000 for FS. How overpaid or what.  How can you justify that wage to set a wage cap. Total evidence of the lack of even distribution of wealth. Total bollocks or what 

[Davefevs]

56 minutes ago, Rocking Red Cyril said:

Ok maybe   I out of  touch . But this job to look at players wages and financial misconduct. Is paying 85000-95000 for FS. How overpaid or what.  How can you justify that wage to set a wage cap. Total evidence of the lack of even distribution of wealth. Total bollocks or what 

Looks a sensible salary to me….

[Rocking Red Cyril]

10 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Looks a sensible salary to me….

Really, I have all but retired now due to ill health and I never earned much over 20 k yearly ever . And I was a project manager, teacher, trainer. Sorry Dave that's a horribly over paid position in my book 

Edited December 9, 2021 by Rocking Red Cyril

[HappyClapper]

1 hour ago, Rocking Red Cyril said:

Ok maybe   I out of  touch . But this job to look at players wages and financial misconduct. Is paying 85000-95000 for FS. How overpaid or what.  How can you justify that wage to set a wage cap. Total evidence of the lack of even distribution of wealth. Total bollocks or what 

 

59 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Looks a sensible salary to me….

I’m certain they would have some recruitment help and would’ve surveyed the market. Looks pretty spot on to me.

[Mr Popodopolous]

It's a big job, it covers 72 clubs and real time monitoring which can be quite challenging. Let alone the salary cap issue and making sure that is working correctly.

On a general note, seems Mel Morris told the Crouch review that if it was in place Derby wouldn't have gone into administration. 

Maybe should be on the Derby thread but the fact that she seems to be expressing some sympathy with him given that he pushed loophole after loophole is odd.

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/mel-morris-derby-county-crouch-6322990

[Mr Popodopolous]

Having reread it, he seems to be implying that if there was an Independent Regulator then Derby wouldn't be in their current mess.

What strange logic, unless he is also factoring in that Stadium sales and alternative accounting/amortisation methods wouldn't have been allowed. Although the revenue distribution issue might also look very different.

It's just Mel Morris all over on balance. Remember his ridiculous comments in the initial IDC not least that he was 'an enemy of the EFL state'. Sums him up.

[HappyClapper]

10 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Having reread it, he seems to be implying that if there was an Independent Regulator then Derby wouldn't be in their current mess.

What strange logic, unless he is also factoring in that Stadium sales and alternative accounting/amortisation methods wouldn't have been allowed. Although the revenue distribution issue might also look very different.

It's just Mel Morris all over on balance. Remember his ridiculous comments in the initial IDC not least that he was 'an enemy of the EFL state'. Sums him up.

So essentially, if the EFL wasn’t so lax under the previous regime he wouldn’t have cheated and Derby wouldn’t be in this mess!

Strange logic. “Your honour, I only murdered him because I could get away with it. Now I’ve been caught, it obviously isn’t my fault, it’s their fault because I thought I would get away with it - the defence rests.”

[Clevedon Red]

1 hour ago, HappyClapper said:

 

I’m certain they would have some recruitment help and would’ve surveyed the market. Looks pretty spot on to me.

I wouldn’t do that job for anything less. Thought it would have been higher given the industry. 

Edited December 9, 2021 by Clevedon Red

[Hxj]

17 minutes ago, Clevedon Red said:

I wouldn’t do that job for anything less.

For an 18 month contract in Preston they won't get what they need (a skilled and enthusiastic auditor/financial investigator) at that salary, they will get someone who either sees it as the last job before retirement or someone doing it because of the job title.

[ExiledAjax]

3 hours ago, Rocking Red Cyril said:

Ok maybe   I out of  touch . But this job to look at players wages and financial misconduct. Is paying 85000-95000 for FS. How overpaid or what.  How can you justify that wage to set a wage cap. Total evidence of the lack of even distribution of wealth. Total bollocks or what 

Nowhere near what someone of the level they want could earn in private practice. If they realistically want someone of the calibre and ambition they need, they likely need to offer 3x this amount.

As an aside, I worry that the new regulator (if brought in) will offer similar low salaries, and will similarly struggle to attract the lawyers, finance experts, accountants etc that they will need when they can earn 3 or 4 times the amount in private sector. The new regulator needs to be offering in the region of 300k and up for the head of the org, heads of department, and board members, probably 100-150k for management level, and 70k+ for graduate and entry level. Anything less is just utterly non-competitive.

[Davefevs]

1 minute ago, ExiledAjax said:

Nowhere near what someone of the level they want could earn in private practice. If they realistically want someone of the calibre and ambition they need, they likely need to offer 3x this amount.

As an aside, I worry that the new regulator (if brought in) will offer similar low salaries, and will similarly struggle to attract the lawyers, finance experts, accountants etc that they will need when they can earn 3 or 4 times the amount in private sector. The new regulator needs to be offering in the region of 300k and up for the head of the org, heads of department, and board members, probably 100-150k for management level, and 70k+ for graduate and entry level. Anything less is just utterly non-competitive.

@Rocking Red Cyrili reckon you were done!

[chinapig]

1 hour ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Having reread it, he seems to be implying that if there was an Independent Regulator then Derby wouldn't be in their current mess.

What strange logic, unless he is also factoring in that Stadium sales and alternative accounting/amortisation methods wouldn't have been allowed. Although the revenue distribution issue might also look very different.

It's just Mel Morris all over on balance. Remember his ridiculous comments in the initial IDC not least that he was 'an enemy of the EFL state'. Sums him up.

Tracey Crouch makes this point, as does Rick Parry, in recent interviews on The Athletic's Business of Sport podcast.

Parry also said btw that it was the Premier League who insisted the freedom to sell stadiums be included in P&S rules as a condition of so called solidarity payments. I had not realised that was the case.