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The Importance of Sport (NEW CONCEPTS)
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Mick Harper
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Over to the blue half. Man City have today been charged by the Premier League with committing a hundred breaches of the rules over the last thirteen years ranging from Fair Play financial skullduggery to Kiddie Nobbling. Their defence?

1) We are completely innocent
2) We were exonerated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport over these alleged offences (erm... the fine was reduced).
3) The Premier League are only digging these up because there is a White Paper due out shortly proposing a Government Football Watchdog so they're trying to show they can keep their own house in order.
4) We're Man City.

Personally, I think they're going to be shafted. The PL wouldn't be doing this unless they thought it was all copper-plated -- and they don't permit appeals to Gnomes of Zurich. Since you can't fine oil sheikhs, City will probably get relegated for a season to whatever it is they're calling the second division nowadays.
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Mick Harper
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Two new (to me) details came out in the Sky discussions. First of all, QPR were fined £50 million by the EFL a few years ago, they are still paying this off, and are having a hard time of it. I should think so too. Anyone who's been to Loftus Road will know they have to move the cows up to the other end of the shed, if they get any kind of crowd in -- which they don't very often. Though I expect there are buckets at the turnstiles for any spare change going. Or to milk the cows if you don't like Bovril.

UEFA/PL fair play rules allow you basically to lose thirty million a year, i.e. your owner can spend that much over and above the money coming in from the punters. This is computed over a rolling three-year period. Since Chelsea have just spent six hundred million in six months and are not even in the Eurominnows places, I can't see how they are going to avoid a spell in the doghouse with Man City (and QPR). Especially as they don't seem to have grasped how to hide transfer outlays as City did with Erling Haaland. They think handing out eight-year contracts -- and amortising the fee over that period -- will save them but all it actually means is they will still be paying top wacko in 2030 to players on semi-permanent loan to Wrexham. Unless they're playing Wrexham of course.

And, by the way, we still haven't been told how a £150 million pound man was acquired for sixty. Maybe that will be one of the charges on the crime-sheet but I doubt it because all the evidence for the other transgressions came into the hands of the authorities via a Portuguese bedroom hacker. I'm sure City have beefed up their cyber defences since then. There's certainly nothing to worry about from the suits. Corrupt in UEFA, dozy in the PL. I like to think.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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Mick Harper wrote:
Over to the blue half. Man City have today been charged by the Premier League with committing a hundred breaches of the rules over the last thirteen years ranging from Fair Play financial skullduggery to Kiddie Nobbling. Their defence?

1) We are completely innocent
2) We were exonerated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport over these alleged offences (erm... the fine was reduced).
3) The Premier League are only digging these up because there is a White Paper due out shortly proposing a Government Football Watchdog so they're trying to show they can keep their own house in order.
4) We're Man City.

Personally, I think they're going to be shafted. The PL wouldn't be doing this unless they thought it was all copper-plated -- and they don't permit appeals to Gnomes of Zurich. Since you can't fine oil sheikhs, City will probably get relegated for a season to whatever it is they're calling the second division nowadays.


The Premier League (PL) is the other PL clubs, so it's a case of some of the other clubs wanting to send out a warning shot to Man City. Given that the top PL clubs will all be doing something similar, ie trying to show that they abide by financial fair play whilst using their owners' resources as well as sponsorship deals (BTW how come Emirates always seem to sponsor Arsenal?) to purchase success, I would hazard a guess that a number of these breaches could also be alleged against quite a few others, not just Chelsea. A deal will be struck. There will be a ticking off and then new rules, which will allow Premier league clubs to spend (err) more in the premier league not less.
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Mick Harper
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It is, I understand, a matter of egregiosity. Emirates is allowed to put, say, fifty million as the value of the Arsenal stadium in terms of global branding (when really it's twenty) but they're not allowed to employ Mikel Arteta as the manager of Emirates Rovers FC so that only half his salary shows up on the Arsenal books (a charge levelled at Man City with Roberto Mancini).

It's not the size of the cookie jar, it's the size of the hand in it.
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Wile E. Coyote


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I am not sure about the Emirates deal, all I do know is that if it is always the same sponsor, any outsider looking at FFP issues is going to wonder if it is really commercial. Did they tender?

That's the problem for the other clubs going after Man City, they might get Man City relegated, but then they will be turning the spotlight on themselves. Even, let's say, a 3 point deduction for a more "minor offence" or a lesser number of offences could cost another club like Arsenal the premiership or a place in Europe and millions, or, say a big team like Everton who is struggling, 3 deducted points could mean relegation.
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Mick Harper
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There is always one factor that trumps everything: profit-and-loss. The big difference between Arsenal and Man City is that, at the end of the day, one has to make a profit and the other doesn't. It may not look like that from further down the league ladder but Chelsea are going to find out the difference between being owned by US corporate raiders (or whoever they are) and a Russian oligarch.

Curiously, Newcastle might discover the same thing if -- as most people assume -- they are owned by some manifestation of the Saudi sovereign fund. They are just 'diversification'.
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Grant



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The Premier League will have to consider if they should pull out of Europe totally. A league owned by sovereign funds and paying the top players hundreds of millions rather than the measly tens of millions would be the world’s top sporting event. The likes of PSG, Real and Barcelona would be begging to join.
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Wile E. Coyote


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Mick Harper wrote:
There is always one factor that trumps everything: profit-and-loss.

This will be part of the Man City defence, we are currently sucessfully making a massive profit, and look at the value of the players in our team, our assets. Judged over the longer term, we are doing what any business would do, spending to make future profits. If this case is so clear cut why has it taken so long to investigate? If the answer is that Man City were not co-operating, then why haven't we been charged with that years ago. Why are other teams not being put under the same scrutiny. The Premier Leagues FFP rules are weaker than those of UEFA. I can't see it being anything other than a slap on the wrist.

The big difference between Arsenal and Man City is that, at the end of the day, one has to make a profit and the other doesn't.

Not sure which team you are referring to. Arsenal have made a loss over the last 4 seasons, in millions it equates to 32,54,127, and 46.

Arsenal has switched from a profit operating model to a loss operating model. That is a loss even with some of the commercial sponsorship deals, which some outsiders might think to not be within the spirit of FFP, eg The "Visit Rwanda" sleeve kit deal. Was the Rwanda deal commercial or is it sportwashing. I really don't know. Was it tendered?

It seems to this outsider that it has probably come about as the leader of Rwanda is a gooner and populist former guerilla leader who previously staged a coup. Still he was subsequently elected by 99% of his electorate. So he is clearly popular. It is no doubt a lovely if very poor part of Africa, so spending 10 million a year is probably a good investment on the Rwandans' part as no doubt Arsenal supporters will wanting to be spending their hols in Rwanda, an added bonus of going is they can meet up with supporters from PSG (a club in more than a little trouble over FFP) who have a similar deal. Anyway it's good news for Arsenal as it means they are relying less on loans to cover their operating losses.
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Wile E. Coyote


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Are Arsenal still on UEFA's watchlist for breaching for FFP along with PSG and Barcelena, and so on? UEFA rules allow for a 25 million loss over 3 years. Arsenal appear to be 150-200 million over the limit?? So potentially no Euro Footie for them.
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Wile E. Coyote


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Here's how I think it will play out.

Man City will suffer a Premier League points deduction of 20 points, due to breaching the PL, FFP. Rather than win, they can only finish 5th

Arsenal, who otherwise would have finished second, now will win the Premiership but UEFA will ban them from Europe for breaching UEFA, FFP.

The team that finishes 5th in the Premiership will need to be given the vacant Champions League spot.

It's a real triumph for those that argue in favour of FFP. No?
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Boreades


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Wile E. Coyote wrote:
The team that finishes 5th in the Premiership will need to be given the vacant Champions League spot.


5th place? Sounds like a job for Spurs.
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Wile E. Coyote


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It's really a case of "pecunia non olet" when it's us doing the buying of players, but then calling out your rivals for breaching FFP.

Would any of the top seven support a NFL style players salary cap?

You can tell FFP works better in the NFL as the pre season betting demonstrates their teams have a much more even chance of winning.
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Mick Harper
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It depends what you want out of your sport. If you listen to a standard NFL chat show innumerable hours are spent discussing whether the Green Bay Packers were right to transfer their star wide receiver to the Miami Dolphins in order to free up their salary cap so they can invest in some mid-range defensive linebackers etc etc.

Some of us were brought up in an era when no footballer could earn more than twenty quid a week but it still led to permanent haves and have-nots.
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Wile E. Coyote


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Mick Harper wrote:
It depends what you want out of your sport.


I guess it does, but I am not sure that a lot of the have nots will be as keen to stop the FFP revolution as those aristocratic old money clubs who started all of this simply as a means to eliminate their new money rivals. The have nots actually have numbers and ambitions of their own. Yikes. Salary cap, here we come.
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Mick Harper
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That train has left the station. The Premier League are now a law unto themselves. And the Big Six/Seven/Whatever are a law unto themselves in the Premier League.
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