Financial Fair Play investigation

[PhilEFC]

We can’t spend this summer then.

Wait and see what happens first mate. Could be years away any thing happening.

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

Derby is a little different because they were in administration and there are different, more stringent rules in the Championship.

Derby got punished for both offences. Concurrently- ie -12 and the League were still not forgetting about the FFP breach(es). Yes agree how the rules are enforced, it's more stringent in the Championship.

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

No ... not when you (City) are employing lawyers (Lord Pannick) on a briefing fee of £1m (just to hear your position) and £10,000/hour thereafter plus all the other myriad lawyers on £3k/hr .. and then the possibility of taking all the way to the court of arbitration for sport and I guess you are looking at a minimum of 2 years and probably longer

BUT it would be in our interest to have the City case resolved first as everything will flow from there

Can't take it to the CAS for domestic cases.

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

Would say Leeds aren't in great shape either, Leicester could at least bring a few bob in.

Leeds will be fine FFP wise IMO. They have survival bonuses or had of £40-45m...going down means no bonuses, which means yes the huge income hit but £40-45m less in costs. The position of Leicester is a lot more interesting. Raphinia and Phillips sales will help Leeds somewhat.

Issues for Leeds lie with ownership and uncertainty there I suspect.

Leicester have in fact moved their Reporting Period for this season to end of June...it was end of May but I wonder if they're on course to breach this season and have extended by a month to give them more time to try and get some player sales over the line to stave it off.

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

There isn’t effectively any way of introducing FFP type rules that will fit every football club . If you accept that then you won’t get too worked up when, as most supporters do, compare apples with pears.

For instance let’s look at the £105 million allowable loss over 3 years. That number will apply to say Bournemouth with circa £360 million turnover over a 3 year period or about 30% of turnover the same as it does with say Utd’s annual number of say £600 million or £1.8 billion over so they can only loose circa 9% of turnover & dependant on how you see the argument it could be said it well be more advantageous to Bournemouth.

Then you get the notion of a level playing field. Bear in mind FFP is a UEFA model so is everyone ok with that playing field to include say Holland, Belgium , Luxembourg or even Wales or come to that Gibraltar? The simple fact is that teams that finish in relegation positions in the PL earn far more than most teams in Europe.

I still haven’t seen the full details of the new UEFA FFP model but what I have read will change matters and the fact that the monitoring period is stated to be over a January to December period as opposed to a clubs accounting year is significant change and again from my limited reading those changes are already in place meaning failure to hit the 90% of income( after allowances) spent on wages/ amortisation/ agents fees certainly won’t hurt clubs with the bigger numbers in terms of income. Nor will they be too worried because the sanctions being suggested are minor fines because those fines have to be applied equitably throughout European football.

But forget all this the biggest threat in all this is that say Utd turnover £600 million and after the wages etc and other allowances there is £75 million still in the pot that money almost certainly will find its way into the owners pockets by way of dividends. Is that good for football?

It is inevitable that the PL rules will ultimately have to mirror UEFAs but till they do change what’s in place will be what clubs will be measured against. The Everton charge is about reported numbers and that will all most certainly be proven but the issue then won’t be about having a guilty finding it will be what the sanction is and my guess is will twofold 1) a fine and 2) a reduction in squad size. It certainly won’t be a points deduction

Then to City . Their charge centres around manipulating the numbers from disguised payments to the manager to disguised payments to player via ,it seems, outsourcing image rights payments.

Of course FFP and the PLs version were the reason why city took the approach suggested but they are charged with not just bending FA and PL rules they are charged with breaking them

Surely the PL objectively speaking should have referred the accounts as they were either 2021 or 2022 if to 2021 still fine, and let an Independent Panel get into it then. They have handled it very oddly given that they should have had relevant info not long after the Reporting Period ended. It was how it worked at EFL level when Projected accounts go in March as they presumably do in the PL and then these are updated in June or July once the Reporting Period has ended.

 

[Milk]

Can't take it to the CAS for domestic cases.

Had I feeling that I had read that somewhere but I am willing to bet that someone like Pannick will find a loophole big enough to take it to CAS if the "independent" panel get too uppity with City (which they won't)

 

[Walken]

Good to see Mr prickadopolos back, the 'bristol' fan with a sincere interest in our finances

 

[larrygobfiend]

Hmmmm, didn’t the club do the right thing by ditching their Russian commercial deals etc?

Surely that should be taken into consideration?

 

[duncs pigeon]

Good to see Mr prickadopolos back, the 'bristol' fan with a sincere interest in our finances

Seems to have the same vocab as evertheoptimum or whatever his name was

 

[roydo]

Good to see Mr prickadopolos back, the 'bristol' fan with a sincere interest in our finances

He is deffo a Bristol City fan, based on his comments about that club to me. Like many lower league fans, he may well have a PL club he follows, but even so, deffo City.

 

[WestStandLower]

Surely the PL objectively speaking should have referred the accounts as they were either 2021 or 2022 if to 2021 still fine, and let an Independent Panel get into it then. They have handled it very oddly given that they should have had relevant info not long after the Reporting Period ended. It was how it worked at EFL level when Projected accounts go in March as they presumably do in the PL and then these are updated in June or July once the Reporting Period has ended.

Are you referring to the Everton or Cities charges?

Irrespective full accounts take a considerable time to complete and audit following the end of an accounting period .

Yes the clubs submit information as a year progresses but matters were complicated by virtue of COVID and no doubt significant discussions will have taken place as to what was allowable.

Rarely are charges for matter’s financial issued in haste and no doubt accounts and returns were subjected to deep examination before charges were even considered and only when they were issued could the IT become involved

 

[Eggs]

….unlike City, we certainly haven’t benefited from any FFP discrepancy. Indeed, it can be argued that we are actually worst because of it.

 

[coollino]

After the relegation thread, this one is like the worst comedown ever

 

[Eggs]

After the relegation thread, this one is like the worst comedown ever

….feels like one more hurdle to overcome.

 

[Yarrgh]

Are Leeds and Leicester suing them as they could have been ejected from the league and saved them from relegation.

Or do they only have enough resources for one speculative nuisance complaint about us?