OK! It strikes me that something will need to be done to the overall rules on FFP. Every team will most likely post losses this year and not really due to overspending or spending beyond their means. Yet, there will be those that really have spent beyond the means they would have had without COVID.....the usual gamble to get promoted and not suffer the penalty. How can this be dealt with fairly? Carry on as normal but ignore the losses for this season? That will allow overspenders to get away with it. Keep the same rules and levels but take a kinder approach to penalties? What do people think?
They could increase the allowable overspend for this year / 3 year average to account for loss of tv revenue and gate receipts. If its £1M a game and 5 home games then an extra £5M over 3 years. Not perfect, but it isnt anyway.
From what we are told, there are going to be massive losses made from the Championship downwards as a direct result of the pandemic. Budgets set by clubs are based upon assumption and future projected revenue. They've been blown out of the water by events beyond their control. There's just got to be a re-thinking of the penalties they should incur under current FFP rules. Having said that, I've got no sympathy for clubs that have (allegedly) bent or broken the rules by design prior these events. The dodgy sale and buyback stadium schemes employed by clubs like Villa, Brum, Derby and Wednesday are a farce and should be pursued anyway. I've no doubt the gravy train that is the Premier League/Champions League will start to roll shortly and the EFL will yet again get thrown scraps.
As much as I hate the premier ,the club must be run as a profit ,and as I see it we must get there and at least stay there for a few years,and besides living in France I will then get to see all citys games live ,bit selfish but just saying.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52999782 Interesting article on BBC one similar subjects. Look at the revenues and profits/losses even in the Prem 107% of turnover spent on salaries in the Championship. Look at how the turnover drops massively by division. Very scary numbers. I watched season 2 of Sunderland Till I Die not too long ago. When the new owners came in, they had an absolute head fit that the business plan had been to lose £40 mill that season!! (If memory serves me correct). The only viable answer is a wage budget cap (a pre-determined amount by division) that clubs need to work within. Doing it based on revenues just skews the game in favour of the bigger/better supported clubs. It'd have to be done on a worldwide equivalency basis (e.g. Prem, Seria A, La Liga etc. get given one amount to work within, Championship, Ligue 1 etc. the same and so forth). Though I wouldn't want to be the one to work out the equivalences. This way the "big" clubs couldn't then have a monopoly on the big stars as their wage caps would prevent too many high earners at any single club. Plus then clubs would bring forced to either write salary reduction clauses into contracts to cover relegation or be forced to offload high earners to meet the next level down. It'd also prevent clubs going completely s##t or bust trying to gain promotion. Hard to get agreed but would be good for the game throughout. But then, when did the powers (or the big clubs) ever care about sporting integrity?
I think what you're proposing is close to world-wide nationalisation!!!! Freedom of movement and human rights would also go by the board. I'm not against well supported clubs getting more though and being able to spend more. It's what makes it a fans game and keeping fans more important.. The german system miught be worth a look with a must of 51% fan ownership/control....although even that is being bastardised these days by Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig....to name a couple.
Hey FFB, what I was trying to get at is a way to level the playing field in each division whilst encouraging financial good practice. A club wouldn't HAVE to spend the full budget on their squad salaries (transfer fees are a whole other ball game), though a minimum should also be set to prevent unscrupulous owners putting out youth teams and pocketing the takings, thus cheating the supporters. It's very similar to the US Football system really. Would definitely make clubs think twice about offering huge sums to average players just to prevent them going elsewhere.. likewise big stars... imagine telling Liverpool they couldn't afford to keep all of their front 3, or Man City likewise. The likes of Real Madrid and Barca couldn't then buy the title... Would make leagues far more interesting if the likes of Norwich had an equivalent wage budget available to say Man Utd eh?
