Comments on: HOW FINANCIAL FAIR PLAY WILL ACTUALLY HURT SMALLER CLUBS

By: llclll

llclll — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 04:07:00 +0000

what happened with chelsea is the exception, not the rule

By: Irish_7

Irish_7 — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 11:18:00 +0000

by this logic, all clubs should spend beyond their means in hopes of short term success, ever heard of Leeds United?

By: harry

harry — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:46:00 +0000

will this mean more youth coming through the academies? if yes then this benefits home grown players

By: Pro_Abdi

Pro_Abdi — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:40:00 +0000

So then whats going to happen to Man City, since they have found a loop hole by which they can pump money into there club? are the rules going to be changed, what if Chelsea decide to do the same and get Roman to buy Stamford bridge. Weather you call it smart or underhanded-tactics somebody somewhere picked a giant hole in these FFP rules.

The rule will help self-sustaining clubs like Arsenal and Barca who manage to produce first team players easier than others.

By: Charles Liu

Charles Liu — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:13:00 +0000

If a club wants to grow then they can produce better players duh…

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:01:00 +0000

This is exactly what I said to my dad the other week. Top article.

By: Mpbx3003

Mpbx3003 — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:40:00 +0000

I’m really sick of people using the “If Roman walked away” line when referring to Chelsea. I don’t think he’d have trouble finding a buyer who could take over. Chelsea are now considered one of the big clubs now. That’s to say nothing of the fact that Roman seems in excellent physical and financial health, and has expressed no intentions to do sell the club.
If there’s any club to be worried about, it’s Manchester City. What would happen if their owners were the subject to a revolution like those which have occurred in the region this year? Would there be another buyer ready to step in to keep the club at their current level?

By: Bishopville Red

Bishopville Red — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:31:00 +0000

So, you actually think placing the finances of your club on the whim of a sugardaddy is a GOOD thing? More clubs have been decimated by sugardaddies who didn’t have the sugar than survived because of a philanthropic billionaire. What would happen to Chelsea if Abramovich pulled out (or, heaven forbid, passed away) tomorrow? Same thing that happened to Blackburn when Jack walker died; they’d be lucky if relegation was as bad as it got.

For every Chelsea success, there’s a West Ham and Liverpool (Gillett / Hicks) disaster.

The Platinis of the world are quick to laud Barçelonas of the world and dump on the Manchester Uniteds for their massive debt (and you accurately pointed out the hypocrisy of that), but much of MUFC’s success came under a PLC model which employed a more stringent financial expectation on the club re: turnover to player investment ratio than anything FFP has come up with.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but there was always an elite pool of football clubs in Europe. Some have emerged, others have faded, but ultimately some clubs are bigger than others and always were.

FFP was never about putting teams on an equal footing as far as resources toward squads go. It was about putting them on a FAIR footing; hence the term “Financial Fair Play”. Clubs that make more are entitled to spend more. Kinda like the way it always was before sugardaddies decided to play the footy ownership game.
But that doesn’t mean football is ruined. It means clubs with smaller turnovers need to be smart. And if they are, the money going out of big clubs will be going into their pockets, thus simultaneously helping the minnows and negatively impacting the sharks. Every time a starlet is snatched up from a minnow, the minnow’s finances improve, thereby giving them more latitude in the FFP standards. Conversely, every time Chelsea spend £12 million on a starlet, that works against their FFP status.

There will always be opportunities for success for smart clubs. The key will be for all clubs, not just minnows, clubs to actually smarten up.