We settled in the middle of 2018. We had to pay £17m fine plus £3m EFL costs, which I think was spread out over several years. I’m not sure how much per season but anything is more than the club can afford at the moment. The owners had to write off £22m of their loans to the club as part of the deal. Not really much of a punishment as they have had to/will have to write off all of their loans to the club as there is no way to repay them, unless an immensely rich idiot decides to pay an incredible amount over the actual value of the club (negative as a going concern, a few million for the real estate if it ceases to operate) to buy it off them. Paying the fine doesn’t count in our FFP balance sheet, but I’m pretty sure we have a lot more to pay off. Oops, just seen Beth’s post. At least we’re consistent. Of course essentially Rueben is paying this fine out of his own pocket. Perhaps he doesn’t want to any more.
Well, that’s about £425k. @£25 a head. So we’d pay the fine through the revenue from 4 and a bit matches - if we didn’t pay the players, other staff and didn’t maintain facilities and services and pay other bills. Match and TV revenue doesn’t cover our basic operating costs, which is why the owners have the make up the gap (£24m for the last year we have accounts for). So it’s not easy to find an extra £1.7m down the back of the sofa. Every season.
A point deduction resulting in relegation would be bad but there is a bright side to it too. We could qualify to compete for the EFL Trophy and we would not probably need to be concerned by another third round exit from the FA Cup
