U.E.F.A. Financial Fair Play

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27445475

So Manchester City & Paris St Germain have been fined and had their squads for the Champions League reduced to 21 players.

Is this right and fair?

My initial thoughts on FFP were that it was to prevent clubs from over-spending and getting themselves into financial difficulty.

It turns out that now UEFA are using it as a means of sucking cash out of the super-rich clubs.

Like a metaphorical 'speed camera' - it was put in place initially for safety reasons, but now provides an excellent income for the powers-at-be.

I don't know about PSG and how they have spent their money, but I have a certain amount of sympathy for Manchester City - they have invested heavily in their squad, yes, but they have also invested heavily in the academy and the surrounding area of the Etihad Stadium. Not to mention the wider community surrounding that area of Manchester.

Are Manchester City being fined for their generosity?

 

I think it is fair.
The main thing for me is the fact that the game was being polarised by stupid money which took a lot of enjoyment out of it.
Now there are relatively stiff penalties things may improve.
There will still be ways around the rules but it's s step in the right direction.
I think the UK is a good example of how caps and restrictions can add to competetiveness.

 

They're not being fined for generosity, but for bloating the market (with mega-fees).

Of course FFP isn't fair, because the wealth divide of clubs is already set in stone from previous generations of outlandish spending, so club's who have are seemingly now in a completely different class from those below, for as long as these rules are in force. It's useful for preventing team's like City hoarding all the talent on earth, but it's not going to make football better or fairer.

 

I have to disagree here. They may have invested heavily in the academy but I believe that's because they know that sooner or later they need to bring players through and not just buy them.

City have spent over 500 MILLION in the past 5 years...well over. That's a disgrace in my eyes. They are buying success. A club should not get away with Operating at a net loss of more than 45m every year. What hope do good clubs like Everton, Liverpool and dare I say Newcastle have when the likes of City blow teams out of the water by buying and benching all of the English emerging talent to stick to the 'home grown' rules?

I don't like Liverpool but hate the likes of City and Chelsea winning because they've bought success.

 

Chelsea and Manchester City have spent very heavily recently, but look at the relative amounts Manchester United have spent over the years.

Liverpool have blown massive amounts of money on players in recent seasons, and yet the bin-dippers still claim they have challenged for the title "in the right way".

Arsenal spent £42m on one player and that's pretty obscene.

Suggesting Man City are the cause of the market being 'bloated' seems a little unfair to me.

 

Yeah they deserve it. The league is less interesting when you know its down to 2 teams to win the league on the first day of the season.

 

Football has always had the rich vs poor scenario. That's why the FA Cup had so much romance to it.

Manchester United vs Exeter City?

Brilliant, because most people aside from Red Devils fans wanted Exeter to win (they got a draw I think).

Could that element not be injected into the PL? If it hasn't already...

 

I think the idea is right and fair but obviously you cannot punish teams retrospectively for past overspending which gives everyone else a problem in catching up even if a mega rich owner was found so it then plays against itself preventing others catching the previous offenders who got their spending done quick before the rules came in knowing a cap was on the way.
It also remains to be seen if UEFA have the bottle to actually take on these people anyway and if the courts agree with UEFA or the clubs when they whinge about it. One of them WILL take this to court and if they win its just open season for the spoilt brat clubs like citeh and chelski to go beserk and to hell with the rest.

 

But they are the cause?? :/

Nobody says they are the sole cause. Real Madrid spending £86 bazillion on Bale, spending £80 bazillion on Ronaldo, PSG spending tranzillions on everyone, Man City paying **** players £150,000 a week...

It all bloats the market... Arsenal's capture of Ozil was as a result of this bloating, so too the likes of Remy sticking up their noses at our wage cap and rushing off to sign for QPR. I think it's fairer to say FFP is trying to tackle this bloating more than Man City's community spirit as you've suggested

The point is, they drew the line, and it's taken from this baseline now, everything before has been let go... Of course that's not fair, like I said, the wealth divides are set in stone, it keeps big clubs rich and hampers the development of smaller ones, but that's how they've tackled it, and how Man City knew they were tackling it, so the fact they've shown disregard for it and ploughed on for years anyway with this in the pipeline, smacks of arrogance, and it's very hard to be sympathetic.

 

But how much have citeh spent in one window and how much of that is earned income. The richer, more successful and better supported clubs, not to mention better run clubs, have always been able to spend more which stands to reason. The problem is when clubs spend false money like citeh and chelski before them.
Of course though we all hope one day the benefactor will go and they will then be in major trouble, and its happened before, ask Gretna among others. We live in hope.

 

Of course, the irony of the FFP on Newcastle United, is that we will be spending nowhere near our income if we stay in the TV-money-rich Premier League!

 

They should have FFP rules which force owners to spend some of their ****ing money!

 

I don't think its fair.

All its done is made sure that the rich clubs stay rich and the rest make up leagues for them to play in, knowing it will be virtually impossible for them to be caught.
The Champions League comprise the same teams year after year.
Leagues are won by the same club(s) year after year.
There is no hope for anyone wanting to break into the elite cartel.

FFP is a godsend for someone like Mike Ashley.
Produce the accounts each year, showing compliance and its fine, he doesn't need to spend under FFP.
For NUFC to compete at the top table again, we would have to break the FFP rules, so I find it odd that Toon fans would support fining the likes of Man City.

Don't forget under Hall/Ashley we were the biggest spenders for 3 years on the troy, we weren't complaining then about clubs spending money.

Good luck to Man City, I say, there fans have the lived the dream that we crave for along with other clubs up and down the country.
But Platini and his ilk have taken that dream away.

So in the foreseeable future we can look forward to Man Utd, Man City or Chelsea winning the PL.
Strangely enough they are the only 3 clubs to have won it in the last 10 years.

Without Man City being there, it would be the Man Utd and Chelsea monopoly continuing.

I voted NO in case you're wondering.

 

They don't care they knew it would happen and factored it in

 

Fans will always moan when its not their club spending the big money. We didn't mind when KK was blowing money left, right and centre. Blackburn fans didn't mind when they were buying the title. It has been spiralling out of control since those days. Financial fair play to me would be actually capping wages/controlling the transfer market. It will never happen though.

Are these rules fair in the context of what they set out to achieve? Partly.

I'm not sure why we keep banging on about it, it only applies to clubs aiming to take part in Europe doesn't it? The PL spending rules are a separate issue I thought.

 

In all fairness the levels of cash are from another planet. I agree I wouldn't care if it was us but **** everyone else is what football's all about so **** city and the oil.

 

If you asked supporters from the 70s/80s about spending £15m on Shearer they would have said the same thing, it's all relative. Money and consistent success have always gone hand in hand. The main difference now is the dependence clubs have on money and how many clubs have gone bankrupt - that's what the FFP is for, not to ensure a level playing field, as there has never been one.

 

Perhaps a spirit level will help us with the latter.

 

I've got to be honest, I don't really understand FFP. I mean I know what it's about, but I don't really get the details. For me it seems reasonable to require clubs to have manageable debt to income levels, but other than that I don't see the point. It's not like ticket prices are going to come down or buying a premier league channel is going to get cheaper. So I reckon if someone wants to blow all there money creating a super team, well then, fair enough.

 

I don't really give a **** about other clubs, I just wish we had the spending power to put a winning team together.