Financial Fair Play

As Saints' fans we know that the Premier League is far from a level playing field as a few clubs buy players for astronomical sums that are in a different universe to us. We all know about Chelsea and Man City, elevated to the top of the table by billionaire owners who pumped money into the clubs before the TTP rules were created, but even since, wealthy clubs continue to get around the spending limits. FFP was introduced by UEFA so doesn't only apply here but PSG spending £200m on one player (Netmar) shows that therules are a joke, just not a funny one.

Saints have to operate in a completely different market for players. We have top purchase of around or below the £15m mark. Yet Chelsea can spend £60m on Morata from Real Madrid and £40m on Bakayoko from Monaco while Man U paid £75m for Lukaku amd Man City paid £52m for Mendy from Monaco. We know very well what sort of money Liverpool can spend on players because Southampton has received some of it but this close season other big deals included Spurs spending £42m and £23m on two players.

FFP is supposed to mean that spending on transfers ands wages has to be contained within a club's revenue. Each club is supposed to balance the books. But wealthy club shave various ways of getting around that, often by padding out their income with inflated figures such as how much the club owner will pay the club for stadium naming rights or advertising. Not truly earned income but just a way of putting more money into the club. Even Arsene Wenger is complaining that FFP isn't fair at all but his solution is to scrap it altogether which would surely open the floodgates. In the meantime, clubs like Southampton have to find other ways to earn more income without selling your best players. There may be signs that our board has tried to do this by making the club commercially attractive in new markets, such as the USA and now in China. But surely there must be some other way to make this a fair competition because linking spending to revenue is not going to do it when Man U can sell football shirts in every airport in the world while Southampton probably struggle to sell any at Gatwick.

I'm not offering a solution because it needs detailed research by the football authorities to come up with some workable and fair spending caps but I do think it's time for the fans of clubs like ours to try to make a noise about the unfair system we have to operate in. To that extend Wenger is doing us a favour.

As Saints' fans we know that the Premier League is far from a level playing field as a few clubs buy players for astronomical sums that are in a different universe to us. We all know about Chelsea and Man City, elevated to the top of the table by billionaire owners who pumped money into the clubs before the TTP rules were created, but even since, wealthy clubs continue to get around the spending limits. FFP was introduced by UEFA so doesn't only apply here but PSG spending £200m on one player (Netmar) shows that therules are a joke, just not a funny one.

Saints have to operate in a completely different market for players. We have top purchase of around or below the £15m mark. Yet Chelsea can spend £60m on Morata from Real Madrid and £40m on Bakayoko from Monaco while Man U paid £75m for Lukaku amd Man City paid £52m for Mendy from Monaco. We know very well what sort of money Liverpool can spend on players because Southampton has received some of it but this close season other big deals included Spurs spending £42m and £23m on two players.

 

FFP is supposed to mean that spending on transfers ands wages has to be contained within a club's revenue. Each club is supposed to balance the books. But wealthy club shave various ways of getting around that, often by padding out their income with inflated figures such as how much the club owner will pay the club for stadium naming rights or advertising. Not truly earned income but just a way of putting more money into the club. Even Arsene Wenger is complaining that FFP isn't fair at all but his solution is to scrap it altogether which would surely open the floodgates. In the meantime, clubs like Southampton have to find other ways to earn more income without selling your best players. There may be signs that our board has tried to do this by making the club commercially attractive in new markets, such as the USA and now in China. But surely there must be some other way to make this a fair competition because linking spending to revenue is not going to do it when Man U can sell football shirts in every airport in the world while Southampton probably struggle to sell any at Gatwick.

 

I'm not offering a solution because it needs detailed research by the football authorities to come up with some workable and fair spending caps but I do think it's time for the fans of clubs like ours to try to make a noise about the unfair system we have to operate in. To that extend Wenger is doing us a favour.

Whats your point?

oh, the big clubs get away with stuff and the authorities don't do anything about it?

so, tell us something we didn't know.

Whats your point?

oh, the big clubs get away with stuff and the authorities don't do anything about it?

so, tell us something we didn't know.

No, he wants you to lead the class action against the PL and UEFA with these unfair FFP rules.

When you start to lead the boycott, the authorities are bound to notice and demand all clubs in a league gets the same amount to spend on players... just like it used to be (not).

The crux of it is that we are not well supported. If we had millions of people willing to watch our games and buy our shirts then we could compete with Man Utd. We would then be in demand enough to have our logo on a toothbrush in China or a potty in Korea.

Take away FFP and we still wouldn't have the money to buy he players Utd do so not sure what system you are hoping for?

Money talks !

What is the point of having a chinese mafia boss (who has had his rivals executed) in charge, if we're trapped by the same rules as everyone else?

But surely there must be some other way to make this a fair competition because linking spending to revenue is not going to do it when Man U can sell football shirts in every airport in the world while Southampton probably struggle to sell any at Gatwick.

Actually I did buy my Saints shirt at Gatwick, when on a weekend visit to England while in Germany on business, but I might have been the only one...

Saints operate within FFP and some. Our problem is a lack of ambition not FFP. Let's see an end to the so called Southampton way