SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

There has been almost a decade of negotiations between European football authorities and the clubs about the fabled Financial Fair Play regulations. That these are very much a thing to be desired is pretty much a universal thought amongst fans and even the clubs themselves across the continent. It permits at least a nod to the concept of a level playing field,one where certain clubs might have a mightier clout than others due to the income they generate,but at least it is earned on the back of their income. 

Football has been going for about 160 years since the foundation-by a Scotsman!-of the FA in 1863. I doubt anyone back then thought it would become the worldwide phenomenon that it has,it was originally intended as a formulation of rules for “public” schools,so that when the players went to Oxford or Cambridge,they were playing to those same rules. 

In Scotland,of course,we are well used to clubs playing to different rules. One club in particular springs to mind. And that club is why any attempt at such regulation is highly unlikely in Scotland. Even if we can point out that it is for their own good-and have the evidence from less than a decade ago to prove it!

Sadly,it isn’t just the huns who scream and stamp their feet at the prospect of FFP,or an equivalent. Everyone with their eyes on the prize wants to win,and some clubs and owners are more than happy to go to any ends to achieve that. Always with the thought in the back of their minds that success will bring the financial reward that covers the initial outlay.  That was maybe fine back when a provincial club like Huddersfield could win three titles in a row,or when Forest could buy the first ever million pound player. 

It’s a bit more difficult when you are running an outfit which reports debts approaching €1.5 BILLION euros. That will be Barcelona then,though Real Madrid,Atletico and Valencia are hot on their heels. The current European and world club champions owe a similar amount to their owner while Manchester United are around £600m in debt,even as their owners suck fortunes in dividends and the stadium disintegrates before their eyes.

So one might think that FFP is much to be desired,that it might rein in the excess in the transfer market and the wage/agent bill? Seems not so. Virtually all of the big clubs-read,the ones already in the most debt!-have campaigned against it. It seems that they want to protect the hegemony that they have over the big money-raising competitions,canny have a wee upstart from the likes of say Glasgow winning the continent’s premier competition having spent about £50,000. 

No way,Jose!

So FFP is gone,not that it mattered much anyway. The big clubs who were in breach over the years could afford the top lawyers to fight it. Cost them about a Messi weekly wage every time,equivalent to you or I dropping two bob down the back of the settee. It has been replaced by Financial Sustainability Regulations,and you really have to look into these yourself. Regulations they aren’t,much less so sustainable. 

If any of the existing “big” clubs can find a bank stupid enough to cover their debts,EUFA et al will conveniently permit that. If a bottomless pit of an owner can do that,even better. Woe betide though any new kid on the block,like a Manchester City or Chelsea (and who,where,were they only twenty years ago?) Or a PSG?

These new rules are not designed to protect the game. They are not intended to prevent  fans such as ourselves watching powerlessly from the sidelines as our clubs become a rich man’s plaything or a political pawn. They are quite specifically targeted at keeping the current hierarchy exactly as it is. 

Welcome to that European Super League,via the back door. Less than a year after we shut the front door on it. 

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Above article by BMCUW