Browsing Archive: September, 2012

FFP punishments for overspending - UEFA clarification

Posted by Ed Thompson on Sunday, September 23, 2012,

As readers of this site will be aware, there are 8 available UEFA punishments.  However, one of the key FFP questions is whether UEFA will actually ban a an overspending club.  Important clarification has been provided in an interview with Alasdair Bell, UEFA's director of legal affairs.

Bell explains that he believes that any club that exceeds the Break Even limit by more than 20% will face the most severe punishments.  In practice this means that during the current two year Monitoring Period...


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An alternative to the Premier League English Player Quota problem?

Posted by Ed Thompson on Friday, September 21, 2012,


The internet is full of ‘crack-pot’ ideas, from personal jet-packs to underwater hotels (as proposed by Joe Cala, one of Pompey’s former prospective owners proposed).

Occasionally some of these ideas take root. Back in November 2011, Blogger Maracanazo proposed an alternative FFP punishment to the outright ban suggested by the rules. He suggested that overspending clubs could be docked points from the group stage of the Champions League or Europa League.  Perhaps Platini reads his site, ...


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Will Transfer Window activity affect Liverpool’s plan to meet FFP?

Posted by Ed Thompson on Thursday, September 13, 2012,

Will Transfer Window activity affect Liverpool’s plan to meet FFP? 

Back in May I published an assessment of Liverpool's finances and a projection on whether they were on track to pass the FFP test (link). I pointed out that things were very tight and to meet FFP requirements the new manager would certainly not have 'war-chest' for new signings - existing players were going to be sold so he could bring new ones in.  Since then, the club's owners have issued an 'open letter' to fans to outlin...


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Atletico find there’s more to Financial Fair Play than just “Break-Even”

Posted by Ed Thompson on Tuesday, September 11, 2012,

Atletico find there’s more to Financial Fair Play than just “Break-Even” 

The term “Financial Fair Play” is often used when talking about the need for a club to meet UEFA’s Break-Even requirements.  However, UEFA’s FFP rules run to around 90 pages and cover significantly more than just the need for a club to balance their debits and credits. UEFA have just announced that 23 clubs have had their UEFA prize money withheld under the banner of “Financial Fair Play”. One of the 23...


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If losses are 'trending in the right direction' will a club pass the FFP test?

Posted by Ed Thompson on Wednesday, September 5, 2012,

It is quite common to read journalists state that a club will pass the FFP test if it is 'trending in the right direction' (i.e losses are reducing each year).  However this is probably the single biggest misconception about the FFP rules. The confusion is due to something called Annex XI, a rather tortuously worded post-script added to the FFP rules specifically to help clubs comply with FFP in the early years. The most common incorrect beliefs are:

Incorrect FFP beliefs
1As long as the club i...


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