The Championship has agreed in principle to operate a system proposed by UEFA whereby they start to reduce the players wages to more meaniful proportions. The Football League says its clubs have agreed in principle to adopt Uefa's financial fair play system. Uefa has introduced the rules to try to make sure that clubs balance their books and break even. The 72 league clubs, faced with increased levels of debt, agreed "in principle" to the regulations at their annual meeting. "This is a very important step forward for professional football," said Football League chairman Greg Clarke. "It will help our clubs exert greater control over their finances. "Much more work needs to be done, but I am hugely encouraged and impressed by the energy and focus of our clubs on this issue. "They have been the catalyst for change and have shown a real desire to self-regulate in this area. I congratulate them on taking this bold step." The Football League clubs voted in favour of the new measures at the meeting in Cyprus following a presentation by Andrea Traverso, Uefa's head of club licensing and financial fair play. Debt in Football League clubs now totals approximately £700million, Clarke told BBC Sport's Paul Fletcher earlier this week, "and more than 80% of this is in the Championship". The Championship clubs agreed to work towards the new regulations being "developed and approved by the beginning of the 2012/13 season". League One clubs have also agree to introduce the Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP) from next season, where teams will only be allowed to spend a fixed proportion of their total turnover on player wages. The SCMP already operates in League Two at the 60% threshold, which will be reduced to 55% from the summer. FA chairman David Bernstein described the Football League's announcement as "very encouraging". He said: "I welcome the Football League's new cost control measures. The FA supports these regulations and they are a welcome step in the right direction. "While giving evidence at the Select Committee in March, (FA general secretary) Alex Horne and I called for such measures. "I would like to congratulate Greg Clarke and all at the Football League for their continued progress in this area." While this should be a step in the right direction I can see that it can hit some of the clubs with relatively small turnovers. A team such as Watford does not have the turnover that others have. Therefore we would be always disadvantaged. Before we get to that state though some clubs will really suffer as they battle with the huge debt they are carrying. At least we started to get to grips with our debt sometime back. Somehow the club has to be put into a state where the turnover increases. Mr.B says he thinks he knows how. I wonder what the plan is?
So upwards of £560M is owed by Championship clubs - makes our £10M look positively paltry & us looking healthy! What on earth is meant by 'agree in principle'? Sounds very much like a kop out to me - "Yes we agree it would be a sensible thing to do, but we may or may not join in." I seem to recollect that was one of Sir Humphrey Appleby's favourite lines
Spot on frenchie - and this makes it all the more imperative that our Academy Production Line is not tinkered with in any detrimental way as that is where our future survival - and opportunities for success - lies. What annoys me is the effect that this will have on those 'bigger' clubs who see that they have a divine right to be in the EPL because of their larger fan base. They will become even more insufferable.
This I think is a good step if clubs can agree to go along with it. There are problems that I can see, such as a club selling a star player for millions which would appear in their turnover one year and have no one to sell the next. They would spend big one year, then only be able to pay little the next. The result I believe would be players all on one year contracts or clubs with a few high earners supplemented by youth team players. To rely on having players for sale every season seems wistful to me. My wife when in the UK worked in the village school and would comment each September on the fact that the new intake of children were good or a load of duffers. Somehow Watford have to increase their turnover. It has been stuck at around the same level for too long, apart from the flirtation years. Clearly if we had the new east stand there could be a premium paid to sit in it. Historically it was always the most expensive place to sit and it shows that plenty of people are prepared to pay more to sit in the Upper Rous. Mr.B claims to have spotted ways in which the club can earn more from non-match day events. Now that he has started to communicate I hope he will share some of his thoughts with us.
The best way would be a national wage cap but will law allow that to happen? Clubs ought to get into reality but some top ones have limitous funds and appear able to run up milions of debts without tooo much fuss made.
