Not necessarily. FFP rules in the Prem are different to those in the Championship. Championship FFP we missed by a country mile and we're gonna get hit with a huge fine, I think in January. Fernandes has said we're fighting this in court so we won't know the outcome on that for a good while yet. We've probably got a good chance of winning tbf. On the face of it, handing out a swingeing fine to a club already in well in the red seems insane to me and, if upheld, the fine would take a severe chunk out of the Sky money putting us at a huge disadvantage against other Prem teams who haven't got this outlay. On the other hand the Football League could argue that by not playing within FFP rules we gained an unfair advantage over clubs in the Championship, like Derby for example, who did. I'm no legal expert and I'm sure there's other arguments either way. Sod all we can do about it now bar keep our fingers crossed and hope we never find ourselves in this position again. By comparison Premiership FFP seems to be a bit more sensible and well thought out. As I understand it there's two elements. The first relates to wage bills and looks like a fairly decent try to finally put a salary cap of sorts in place. They've basically said that if any club is spending over £52 million on wages, then that figure can't increase by more than £4M over a year. So if our wage bill is £60M this year, it can't be more than £64M the following year, £68M the year after, and so on. There are loopholes, in that you can pay above these figures as long as the money comes from extra sponsorship deals or increased matchday revenue. Not perfect but a start. The second relates to a clubs losses. As I've read it, I think we are permitted up to £105M total losses between now and the end of December 2016. It sounds a lot given our recent accounts but, if we can stop up for three years, the amount we'll get off Sky coupled with the more measured approach the board seems to be taking now, should see us right. At the very least it should focus us on something we used to do really well, finding reasonably-priced, decent young talent with some sell-on value. The ceiling doesn't apply to any spending on infrastrucure like training facilities or new stadia. If we do fall foul of Prem FFP then we're lose points which, while not great, would potentially be survivable and not as damaging as the sort of fine the Football League are going to give us. Apologies if I'm wrong, and I am open to correction, but I think that's how it works. Really important few seasons coming. We have to stop up.
As I've mentioned before re. FFP. It hasn't been ratified by the Football Clubs yet so it cannot be applied yet. I seriously doubt it could be applied retrospectively. While I'm not 100% curtain I really doubt anything will come of FFP for last season.
Sorry but it was ratified in April. https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=B_bpU-OkN86BZMTLgYgG&gws_rd=ssl#q=ffp ratified premier league
Damm. Sorry I missed that. Hmmm..... Gonna have a good look at all the implications. Thanks. Edit: Just to be sure you are talking about the championship and not the prem. All the links are for the prem and they won't apply to last season. 2nd Edit: interesting reading. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/eslj/issues/volume10/geey/geey.pdf
NP. On my original post I differntiated between the two, but it's a fairly broad topic so I may not have explained it well. Should be fun on here when the FL issue that fine.
It's sobering to say the least. As I stated, like you, I'm cautiously optimistic we'll get away with it. But there will be some opposition from clubs who have stayed within the limits. Huddersfield for example: http://www.htafc.com/news/article/club-news-town-comments-on-ffp-1568276.aspx
I think Tony is going down the legal argument that it is un-implementable for a club dropping down from the prem. I think there is a good chance we might slip through a grey area but you can bet any loopholes we find will be gone as soon as we're through them. Let just hope the prospect of a long, expensive legal battle puts the FL off.
Easy way round this, take 90% of the money out of the game, then we can start to enjoy it again. What a ridiculous waste of everyone's time this is. The playing field isn't even and never will be again, whatever rules are put in place.
I don't disagree with your sentiment sb. Sadly, in truth something is ultimately worth what someone else will pay for it. While people are gonna pay the prices for tickets and club branded gear, the cow will be continually milked for more and more.
Yeah that's one of the things I left out of my original post. But you're right. It will be a huge expense for them - and us for that matter - with no guarantee of success at the other end. I have seen Fernandes' arguments regarding the sharpness of the financial adjustment when you go down. I'd say he has a point, but there are counters to that. For example why did we saddle ourselves with so many players on such lucrative contracts we couldn't shift on when we went down. Why loan in 7 players towards the end of last season when the most we could name in the squad was 5? Don't get me wrong I understand that HR would've wanted as many options available to him as possible. But it does leave us open to accusations from other clubs that we've just spent, spent, spent with no regard to the rules of the competition we signed up to at the start of the season and thereby gained an unfair advantage. The more I think of it, the more complex the arguments. If it does get to court the lawyers are gonna make a bomb.
Oh the barristers will cream it in but in a funny way the more complex the arguments get the better it could be for us. More likely to find a way out of it. I don't think there can be many legal presidents that apply so it could come down to a judges opinion and if he feels that FFP is not put together will enough, it might get thrown out. Big ifs in there though.
I did read your link yesterday regarding wage inflation and it's staggering when you see it spelt out in those terms. The lids off the box and we'll never get it back on again.
Thread hijacker extraordinaire. Don't worry LIUTB, when the threads on this start in earnest later in the year, I'll shoehorn a paragraph in about Adel. Just for balance like.
Gonna kinda merge two threads here but that why I really can't give a monkeys if Adel goes. Forget about playing for the badge, if his wages don't motivate him enough to be on time for training, it says to me he's not the brightest spark. Don't bite the hand that feeds you, and he gets a lot from the club. It's not like he's having to get a tube from Ealing to Oxford St to do 10 hours in top man for not enough wages to pay the rent.
You must have been typing this while I typed myself. No need to worry, jus shoe horned Adel in for you. (How Ironic)
