By Tony Attwood
A small group of top clubs is willing to take legal action if nothing is done to stop Chelsea, Man City and possibly others evading Uefa’s financial fair play system.
Having put their concerns in writing to the League, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man U and Tottenham, are now openly stating that the full financial fair play rules should be introduced into the League. And that if Uefa is seen to be issuing minor fines of no significance to clubs that break FFP, the Group of 4 will go to court.
The grounds of the G4′s proposed action is that club owners have taken business decisions based on Uefa’s clear statements that it will be rigorous in introducing FFP, and if they don’t they will be guilty of having misled investors.
John W Henry, owner of Liverpool, has said that he bought Liverpool in 2010 on the basis that FFP would change the way football works and levels out the finances of clubs. He and others have been encouraged by the fact that the transfer dealings among top clubs had been in decline since the period of the initial run up to full FFP introduction.
Arsenal are in a similar position, with the club’s entire financial system based on the existence of FFP – a system which largely generates a profit for Arsenal. Meanwhile Man City are willing to lose around £100m a year at a time when FFP allows only a total of £38m loss over this season and last season.
The notion that Man City will make a profit of £62m this season in order to balance the loss is extremely unlikely, and so it looks as if Man City think they have found the loophole in the plans. All they have done so far is halved the insane losses of the previous year.
The notion that clubs are going to get around FFP and that Uefa will treat FFP avoidance as they treat racism, is given a boost by the fact that we have seen clubs counting the accounts in strange ways – such as with intellectual property rights sales being counted as income.
For Man C the centre of everything is Ethiad airlines which now spends hundreds of millions each year on promoting itself – and yet never once makes a profit.
Chelsea are doing the same, introducing £18m “exceptional share profit” into their accounts, as revealed on the www.financialfairplay.co.uk website.
The same oddities are showing up everywhere as PSG have put up a deal with the Qatar Tourism Authority as a source of income. Qatar is of course a prime destination for Parisians each summer. Or perhaps it is just the owner of PSG.
Nasser Al-Khelaifi knows that Uefa has to show that this deal is between two organisations that are related. If they can’t prove what we all know – the Qatar owns football clubs – or if the fine is measly then FFP is shot, and the G4 will be the first group to take renegade Uefa to court.
Recent posts…
- Uefa reaches insanity as it contemplates the problem of banners on economic matters
- Would change of manager, change anything?
- How Arsenal helped Chelsea overcome Tottenham and get into the league, plus a match preview
- Signing Theo on the eve of Herbert Chapman day
- How Arsenal supporters can learn a lot from Chelsea fans
- Theo signs. So what of Edinson Cavani?
- Theo and the transfer market dilemma
- Vorm was in vorm, but we’ve got Jack. Reflections on Swansea
- On malevolent Dean Untold Arsenal leads the way, while rest of media scamper behind
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The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
The sites…
- Referee Decisions - just what are the refs up to this season?
- Parent News - what is going on in schools these days?
- The weight loss programme: The only guaranteed way to stay fit
- The Arsenal History Blog from the AISA Arsenal History Society
Haha..Shard Man.. sounds like some sort of failed superhero.
dear dear if you want to debate football DONT go on sites like this.I have never read so much bullshit in all my life.you arsenal fans [not all]but comments on here are so out of touch with reality its astounding. keep reading the red tops and take it all in complete muppets goodbye.
I just realised that goodfellows’ comments get less annoying and more entertaining if you read them in Ray Liotta’s voice.
In my opinion this new Emirates deal where we get more if we qualify for champions league is not very helpful.
I can see it leading to the point of view from above that the cost of qualifying for the champions league is higher than the gains in sponsorship revenue so why would we want to qualify?
i can now see wnat spurs and chelsea fans mean when they post about arsenal fans. the like of shard would be eaten alive on some websites a complete and utter clown.also red arse you have obviously swallowed a dictionary and are having trouble passing it out your behind or could it be your talking through your arse.I just hope the good people of the UAE are aware of what a hypocritical football club there putting there name to in sponsorship deals. better still his highness should have a word with his wife and tell her to end all sponsorship deals with UAE companys and arsenal.
haha.. Ray Liotta no likey shard. Save it goodfella. Foreign relations and business are not really your strength. Nor it seems are your intellect or taste. Consorting with Spurs and Chelsea fans is never a good stamp of approval for anyone. But I’m sure you want the last word so you’ll continue making a fool of yourself. I’m quite enjoying this now. Figuring out that you are such a Liotta-style badass helped me place you in my hierarchy of social beings.
As for Red Arse, if he were to metamorphose into Ace Vantura and began to talk out of his arse, it’ll still make more sense than the grammatical vomit you spew out. Funnily enough though, swallowing a dictionary is one of the things one probably has to do to understand him, so you got that right, but the wrong way round. Kind of like your Bayern-Dortmund issue which RA set you right on. Some people (using the term loosely here) never learn.
Stuart,
Emirates might have bonuses in place for winning the title too. I think it makes enough sense for it to be probable, rather than just possible.
Sorry to re-visit this topic now that it’s died a bit of a death but a couple of points.
Shard, I know goodfellows writing style makes it difficult to follow what he’s saying but if you read back, it was quite clear he got it the right way round when it came to mentioning Bayern lending the money to Borussia Dortmund.
I’d also like to make reference to a point raised by A.Stewart. Unlike so many opposition fans, he clearly understands that Sheikh Mansour is investing not only in a Mancunian football club but also putting money into regenerating a large swathe of East Manchester. Anyone who isn’t swayed by football loyalties will see that this is anything but a bad thing. That area of Manchester is one of the most run down and deprived parts of the country. Believe me, as someone who lives little more than a mile away from the stadium, I can say that it’s been in desperate need of a facelift for decades. As much as I’m giddy about the team City now have, I’m also looking forward to the chance of seeing a previously run-down area being totally transformed over the coming years.
I think it’s important that people do a bit of research and look at the wider picture before casting aspersions. As a football fan, I’ll hold my hands up and admit that I’ve been guilty of this when being critical of other clubs down the years.