I hate how FFP. Does for some teams & not for others, Real Madrid & Barcelona have been bailed out by their government for years, with nothing ever coming of it. Barcelona have sold off a percentage of future TV revenue & have spent that, yet in a few years they should be skint, somehow, miraculously, they won’t be & will be spending millions to get the EPL superstar who has “always dreamed” of playing for Barcelona. For me, I’d rather have owners shovelling their own money into a club, no matter how much, as long as they don’t go bust, or end up owing other clubs. That’s what was wrong before, clubs going out of business because they didn’t have the money they were spending, now all these super rich owners aren’t able to spend their billions & buy the league.
The government bails out their debts which is distinct from FFP which tracks their losses in a season. "As long as they don't go bust" is sort of the kicker isn't it? How do you predict when a club is about to go bust and stop the spending at that point?
Nothing to do with FFP, but state funding of football clubs is illegal and lots of Spanish clubs did it regardless.
I find it hard to believe state funding is illegal, are you sure it isn't just illegal in the PL? Real Madrid have always been government owned/funded haven't they? PSG another are quite clearly owned by the Qatari government. I get that some forms of government funding may be illegal but didn't think it was full stop.
It is illegal, seven clubs in Spain were prosecuted for it and were made to repay all the money. Real Madrid are owned by its members.
Do you mean state ownership or state funding? Those clubs were prosecuted for having favourable tax rates and other illegal matters. The government of various countries fund clubs in a variety of ways.
It is against EU law for clubs to receive any sort of funding from the state, be it tax breaks, loans, cheap land, or anything else that gives them an unfair advantage against other clubs. A foreign state forming a company that then buys a club is not illegal, as has happened with PSG, Man City, Newcastle etc.
As I read it, the issue is in the state "funding" some clubs over others, particularly if it involves interpretation of tax rules that aren't applied across the board, rather than it being outright illegal for a state to fund football clubs in general.
I think that's what I said. Spain were the worst for it, but PSV got investigated over a land deal from the local council that saw them benefit to the tune of €22m and West Ham were under investigation for the Olympic Stadium deal, though I'm not sure anything came of it.
I guess I just find it laughable that there's seemingly a distinction with PSG, City and Newcastle when it's abjectly not the case.
On the Price of Football podcast the first question answered specifically relates to us and FFP, as well as the question of how Stoke and Boro get away with such hefty losses. The suggestion is both will be under significant financial constraints next season, and Maguire believes we are one of the best run clubs in the league which was interesting to hear despite some of our wage decisions this season (although he may be referring to the previous set of accounts, or else to the way Acun offers cheap tickets for example). https://open.spotify.com/episode/2n5CdM92raGQbvwP8vzVwn?si=a01cd8a6e2c94612
FFP thread being bumped. Price of Football is a good resource for understanding amortisation of football registrations. Just tried to find an article that explains it well but they're all pretty confusing in their terminology.
