Short but sweet here, if FIFA can set boundaries to club spending limits, and governments can restrict retail and social interactions in a state of emergency, with all the things going on in 2020 you thought you’d never see, I’m suprised a proposal cancelling the transfer window in some form isn’t being discussed.
Aside from clubs who KNOW they can pump extra cash into their set ups, surely the uncertainty about immediate future earnings is playing havoc with FIFA compliance.
If nothing is done, and stadiums remain closed, I can see concessions to FFP compliance being the next discussion.
Was just thinking that some of the discussion in the rumour threads leads into not knowing what our income will be this year.
Clubs are borrowing money to buy players, but there’s the very real prospect of revenues being dramatically slashed through both match day attendance AND diminishing commercial income.
If you said to me in February I’d be living under a curfew and the kids wouldn’t be able to visit the grandparents I would have said the same thing about it not making sense.
If the window can’t be cancelled, then surely some form of FFP. Confession should be discussed, and that’s when you get into the very basic spirit of FFP, levelling up the playing field.
If we can’t afford Alcantara after winning the league and champions league season before, then how does a club like, say, Aston Villa, spend to stay in the prem.
I honestly thought it might be worthy of a thread…
Lots of clubs require sales at the end of the year to make it through the next year. Banning transfers would consign a significant number of clubs to administration.
FFP was never implemented to provide competitive balance. It was brought in because football across Europe had become financially untenable with teams outside of the elite spending themselves in bankruptcy in an effort just to stand still. Without external controls being put in place it was heading for a complete implosion. The difference in the aggregate financial health of European club football in the time since FFP has come in has been astonishing.
I am surprised the likes of Man City and PSG can still spend money with abandon. Oil demand and prices have been adversely affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so where is the money coming from? Surely the oil well has to dry up one day.
Maybe the pandemic will force more clubs to look to their youth for solutions, rather than shopping for free agents or experienced heads. This should bode well for the standard of national football.
Abu Dhabi have thousands of billions in reserve. They literally don’t know how to spend all that money. Man Cheaty have the full financial power of an oil state behind them, hence Klopp’s recent quote.
Funding player transfers and wages for a few hundred millions is for them like a common man going out to have a meal at a good restaurant.
As for Chelsea, they are the favourite toys of a multi-billionaire who has apparently nothing better to do than to spend his wealth into football.
So I just read a report from James Pearce that Liverpool are expecting to loose 100million due to COVID.
My first point is that they’re not technically “losing” this money… they’re simply not earning it. Sure it affects the bottom line, but last year at this time they turned a huge profit… so they should be fine? They’re simply not making money… bit of a difference to losing.
Next, FFP is a joke and a myth. If United can simply add debt onto the club, and City and Chelsea can simply inject cash out of nowhere, then there is no fair play.
Liverpool are playing in a big ocean, and have a very nice financial model… they simply are up against something that they cannot compete with though.
It is what it is… but for me, they might as well get rid of FFP as it’s simply a joke.
If at this point you have animosity towards FSG, then simply remember. Most businesses are run based on money in and money out. FFP is theoretically supposed to operate on this principle too. However without an oil baron, there are no large injections of cash.
But their outgoing commitments - the massive wage bill we carry - are based on the expectation of future income.
It’s like his your mortgage, your car payments, your phone contact etc are all based on what you expect to be earning. You lose your income, and you’re in the shit.
FFP isn’t a joke. The impact it has had on the financial health of football clubs generally has been incredible.
There is a political point around FFP which needs to be addressed. The big clubs are looking to UEFA to make FFP stop the next city, and if it can’t then that only hastens a Super League and UEFAs demise. Everyone needs FFP to work.
The Abu Dhabi Sovereign Fund is estimated to be worth around north of £500+ Billion,it’s basically a fund to invest excess oil reserve money into other assets,that’ll make them money in the future,so if Man city lose a few £100mill it’s a drop in the ocean to them.
The club made an operating profit of £1m in the last reported financial year. We basically run a little better than breakeven before player sales. Reducing revenues by £100m is going to hurt.
Derby County have been found guilty of breaching FFP regulations, EFL are considering a points deduction as a punishment. I’m just trying to remember what happened to City over their FFP abuse. Oh yeh, nothing!
