FFP - Why haven't we been done?

If my rudimentary understanding of the FFP rules is correct (which it probably isn't), I thought that it was brought in to stop clubs running up massive debts because they were chasing the dream.

Simply put, it was designed to limit expenditure on players (and their wages) and you were only allowed to exceed your "football-related" earnings by 5 million Euros in any given assessment period.

So if we're losing a million quid a month and have been for nearly a year, why haven't we (at the very least) been investigated?

There is a caveat tucked away in the legislation which says you are allowed to exceed the cap "if it is entirely covered by a direct contribution/payment from the club owner(s) or a related party."


Which would suggest to me that we'd be fine if ED had "given" the money to Bolton, but surely if he'd only "loaned" it to the club, we'd be in the shit with UEFA for breaching the rules?


Is that why he finally pulled the plug?

And is that why he's happy to hand it over to whoever comes in and buys the club?

Because with limited revenue streams like ours, whoever it is is going to need to stump up a shit load of cash just to keep the lights on and there won't be any return on their investment for a long, long time.

(And that's if we ever get back up to the Prem.)

Would you gamble circa £50 million on BWFC?

What are "football-related earnings"? Does that include people staying in the hotel who potentially could watch the game? Income from boxing matches staged in the football stadium? Sales of coffee mugs? 

Whatever the definition, BWFC has limited football-related earnings potential other than TV rights and Prem payments so we'll always struggle with the contradiction of investing in a team to get promoted and we should manage our expectations accordingly.

Nobody expects the new owners to throw money at the team do they?

That's why I asked the question about whether or not anybody would be prepared to gift £50 million to the club.

Because you can either do that, write it off and cross your fingers that it comes off or you spend cock all and hope to survive in whatever league you're currently playing in.

There doesn't appear to be any middle ground any more.

Unless you have owners to whom the money isn't important, ie Abramovich or Sheikh Mansoor, you're always going to struggle to compete.

Unless you get 50,000 through the gates every week and you're on Sky once a fortnight.

Which ain't us.

But that's the dilemma of relegation. Stick or twist. Right now we're bust, but EDs offer could get us back in the game. He's handing the same cards to a new player whose attitude to gambling  investment we don't know.

Ah but will wiping the debt constitute an investment of £180mil and therefore breach ffp?

Probably because we've fiddled it all.

Who gives a hoot. Other teams have been getting away with murder.

Such as?

Breadman wrote:Such as?

Qpr have been getting away with all sorts. Blackburn and forest still sign players under embargos

But didn't Fernandes have to write off loans of over £200 million recently to avoid sanctions?

I'm not trying to be clever now, that's just how I heard it reported.

Breadman wrote:But didn't Fernandes have to write off loans of over £200 million recently to avoid sanctions?

I'm not trying to be clever now, that's just how I heard it reported.

My understanding was that you could lose £8 million in one year - it wasn't anything to do with what your overall debt was. We just managed to be under the limit, but think it was a close thing



Fernandes had to write most of his debt of as it was in one season. Also QPR challenging rules in high court.



An increase of up to £13 million season.