I don't know if many of you remember Man City failing FFP, as I remember it, people at the time were saying how draconian the punishment was.
So, with the embargo in place I thought I'd look back and see what happened to them. This is what I found:
Manchester City have reluctantly accepted a conditional £49m fine and restrictions on their European squad and incoming transfers under Uefa's new financial fair play regime.
But the club said their summer transfer plans would be unaffected by restrictions they said would limit them to a maximum £49m net outlay in the upcoming transfer window.
The Premier League champions joined Paris St-Germain, who were given a similar penalty, and seven other clubs in accepting the first wave of FFP sanctions.
Under the complex ruling the club must also agree to a string of other conditions: maximum losses of €20m in 2014 and €10m in 2015, to cap their wage bill at current levels for the next two seasons and to "significantly limit" spending in the transfer market for the same period.
...
If they comply with those conditions, they will get back €40m of the €60m fine, which will be deducted from their Uefa prize money over the next three years.
End Quote
Call me biased but I can't help feeling that they got a far lighter punishment, especially as they were operating with a much higher income.
Although I'd love the club to cut its losses substantially and develop a lot of its first team players through the academy I really hope that QPR challenge the system and the whole thing is scrapped. This is not a proper method to ensure that clubs can meet their debts, it needs to be completely changed.
FFP and Man City
posted on 2/5/15
Death worm of east Texas
Where did you get your name?
posted on 3/5/15
FFP does seem to be designed to allow teams in the PL to stay there.
I worry that after a few years, we will just see a change of the yo yo teams between the championship and PL making it more and more difficult each year for other championship teams to have a chance at promotion with the financial resources available to the yo yo teams and everyone else.
posted on 3/5/15
Football club owners should be allowed to spend whatever they like, but with the proviso that they give it, rather than loan it to their clubs. They should have no legal entitlement to getting any of it back. That way, it would be in their own interests to keep costs down, while not crippling the club with embargoes, all that does is punish the fans.
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Agreed! Why can't al hasawi's just sponsor the stadium with one of their companies at whatever cost to get us into whatever parameters we need to get the embargo lifted? Man city did this so why can't we?
posted on 3/5/15
Because like everything Len it is one rule for them and another for everyone else, it is a joke how obvious they are making it that they want an established top 20 teams in the premier league which they want to stay there.
posted on 3/5/15
FFP doesn't seem to want to allow owners to pump money in even if they write it off, I suppose that wouldn't help clubs like Man Utd and co. It's also funny that it doesn't look at debt, again certain big clubs dodge a bullet with that.
In other words it's supposed to be protecting clubs from over stretching and sinking under a pile of debt, plus levelling the playing field. It's gets nowhere near either
posted on 3/5/15
The people responsible for FFP see the league structure as finite, every club has it's place and every club should know it's place. the rules are pretty much designed to keep League Two clubs in League Two, and Championship clubs in the Championship.
If QPR do challenge the rules, then we should support them, because they need to be changed, so good luck to them.
posted on 3/5/15
So should everyone bar the clubs with a big plastic fan base
posted on 4/5/15
It's all one quiet with QPR and their challenge. I guess It will all crank up a notch when their relegation is confirmed. If FFP is scrapped could Forest, Leeds and Blackburn sue? Their seasons were held back as a result I would say. I am all in favour of FFP but only if it is properly implemented. Fawaz was possibly economical with the truth when he said it would it wouldn't affect the Reds, though, let's not forget...
posted on 4/5/15
It would be interesting to evaluate Bournemouth's finances from the perspective of remaining in the Championship. If they would have infringed FFP and been subjected to an embargo and all the other limitations; then clearly the rules are unworkable?
posted on 4/5/15
The last I read about QPR was that their board had written off a mass of the loss from last season and it would effectively (if allowed) get them inside the boundary. The football league were to clarify their scenario but surely even if the loss doesn't add debt and was written off then it still counts under the current rules? Which would obviously raise the query about the real driver behind these rules