Top 4 will be same again imo And they could be for quite time to come. The impact of the Financial Fair Play rules may have is not entirely clear, they could be rigorously enforced, they could be meaningless token gestures. But if they are to shape the next 10 years, ironically, they could effectively close the door on any Teams playing catch-up. If you have to spend more, to buy better Players, but don't have additional revenues that the Champions League bring, and your Owner can't just put his hand in his pocket, how are you going to break into the established Top 4 Clubs?
That's what i thought. Fair play is making things unfair. The top 4 will get tighter, but they'll accelerate away from the other teams.
Will there be ways around the financial fair play stuff though ? For example will they take related parties into account ? If not what is to stop say Citehs owners oil company sponsoring shirts for say 1 billion ?
Uefa have this covered. Basically if city or anyone try to exploit the rules they will get shafted big time.
I thought it would be but they will always try and find away around it. I suspect we will start seeing some very strange sponsorship deals etc take place over the next few years from parties who seemily have 'no connection' to the owners
The Point is fellas, those in receipt of CL money can spend it, and those that can't, can't. It's not Chelski and Citeh that will have problems, it's anyone wishing to follow their model, which, whether we like it or not, has proved successful
Chelsea's has proved successful I wouldn't say Man Citys has. Unless you call spending over 200 million to be the 3rd best team in the country a success. Their turnover is still relatively low and so cannot support their policy of paying over the odds on transfer fee's and wages to attract players and without this I dont think Man City are an attractive enough club. I also dont think their current team will be strong enough to stay in the top 4 due to Liverpool and I expect Arsenal strengthening so they will need to go out and spend big again this summer to stay there. Chelsea are different, they had been one of the top clubs before they started spending big, they are based in London and so can attract players more easily to live there, they will have difficulty in trimming their wage bill but their turnover is very high so they should remain one of the top 4 or 5 clubs. For man city though I can only see a return to the normal situation of relegation battles within 4-5 years maximum.
The rules are being phased in. Wages don't count for the first two years: http://www.sportingintelligence.com...-wages-dont-count-for-first-two-years-010205/ There'll be teams of lawyers for the clubs poring over the rules to find every inch of give.
Teams with money to spend will be able to get round the rules. look at tax avoidance in this country alone and thats with us making the rules. This FFP nonsense will have been made by some euro committee that cant even agree on what biscuits to have at tea break, they will all have been trying to protect their particular corner meaning the outcome will be nigh on useless.
Totally agree with the above comments. Football authorities prove toothless time and time again up against the financial clout of big clubs. I expect the wealthy clubs will find a way around it easily enough although I wish that weren't true.
Agreed. These rules are nothing a bit of creative accounting an business sense won't be able to get round.
I can't see how they can apply that to sponsorships without also applying it to transfers. Sponsorship is an asset, just like a player. The buying club/sponsor can offer whatever they can afford.
The problem is, who decides the market value? For example, if we have 4 different companies vying to sponsor us, but all offer the same amount because it's the "market value" then where's the business or competition in that? You might as well assign each player a price, tickets aren't allowed to go above a certain price, merchandise has to all be a set price, wage caps, shirt deals all the same.. it's ludicrous. Businesses thrive because there is competition, take away the competition and football will soon lose it's money and FIFA will be the first to fall.
The case in point is our StanChart sponsership. The deal they offered smashed Carlesbergs out of the water, it's huge... who is to decide that it's not just us trying to fiddle the books. This is just as silly as the FA trying to decide what is a "full strengh" first 11
These rules are to keep the status quo in european football, eventually when enough rich guys buy teams they will eventually, because of theiir very nature as business money makers will take top level europeanfootball from UEFA and demote the "top" "most powerful", "have plenty of say" clubs, AC MAdrid ect must look at Che and City as "new Money" upstarts, they cant have that. They care not of small clubs, these new rules will keep them small and the big clubs on top. I reckon their largest problem is law, I reckon financial laws will stop them applying effective rules on this.
Its to prevent clubs who issue huge losses on their balance sheet spending money,so currently City,Chelsea and Man United are all currently screwed.
I know, the pretentiousness of them to think they know such things as with UEFA, no fkn chance traders ect will run rings around UEFA for a laugh, not a hope!! and thats without even being underhanded, which goes on too. No fkn hope of these rules having any effect other than to keep things as they are and not have any drastic shift in hte power of world club football. If a trader can swindle a a few billion from his own bank employer to trade I think they can cook up UEFA no probs
I think in the long run this will be a big profit to footbll, it will just take a little while to settle. It will mean teams actually have to work very hard to climb the league, it will help young players develop as they wont have to sit and watch so many £35million men in their place, it will stop financial bullying and it will stop teams double their debts every summer. It could also mean more smaller clubs hold on to their young hopefuls instead of cashing in, which will lead to clubs investing more in the youth system so that they can be successful.
I don't think the FFP will actually work,as there is far too many legal ways to find loop-holes.And this is down to simple Company law. Normally individuals are worth more than the company.The company and the owners are two separate legal entities.Heres one loop-hole.I'm using Man City as an example.Their owners who are reportedly worth £500 Billion can buy £1 Billlion worth of club merchandise.Instead of them showing a loss of £150 million on their balance sheet,they will shjow a profit of £850 million and therefore meet the FFP regulations.This is legal,and can be done.The terms and conditions for the FFP must be clear and consise and prevent such things taking place for it to work.
