General Premier League Thread 2022-23 - mod note in OP 12/03/23

West Ham have hired Mark Noble as there new Sporting Director.

Even the City apologists are losing interest, only one half hearted defence 2 days after the latest financial doping story, and even that is a classic 'whataboutery' defence pointing the fingers at United'S spending.

The heart is being ripped out of the game.....

There's a mistake in your maths as it seems you are taking their loss as reported to the stock exchange (i.e., their official filed accounts) and assuming that's the figure which is used for FFP. That's wrong.

If for example they invested £XM in the women's team, £YM in the youth team & £ZM in a new training ground, then all those will be a negative on the official balance sheet obviously. But for FFP purposes these are ignored so the actual FFP figure will be that £115m-Xm-Ym-Zm. There's lot of other forms of expenditure which don't count in FFP but would matter in a set of accounts.

I think there is also some workaround such that the 'Covid years' losses are weighted down for FFP, possibly as much as 50%.

IMO FFP should be used to ensure clubs don't go under by spending more than they can afford to service.

But if the City owner wants to give City 1billion as a gift or whatever, so there is no debt burden placed on the club to pay it back, I genuinely can't see why they should not be allowed to - when the reason isn't so that other clubs aren't blown out of the water.

There is or could be arguments for stopping clubs from spending fortunes more than their rivals in order to keep the sport competitive, but it doesn't seem like any FFP has been designed with that goal in mind, really.

I'd like to see something like this taken into account alright, but with a structure that safeguards the club against an owner losing interest, and has measures to preserve competition.

So, let's say Bezos buys Brighton - he could either allow it to run under its own steam, or opt to pump money in. If he does the latter, he should be required to put some very large figure into an escrow account so that the club has an emergency fund there in case he ramps up their costs beyond their means and then pulls out (as was a genuine risk at Chelsea). On top of this, there should be a structure for controlled spending and growth - say, 150% of revenue until you attain a top four position (or some other achievement benchmark), and then it drops down for each year you maintain it. There should also perhaps be a penalty/tax for overspending - say 10% of the spending above your revenue goes back into the league/pyramid.

(As a part of all this, I would prefer even more profit sharing from the bigger teams, with the CL money etc going across the whole league)

The USA which is the size of Europe ring fence the league for the top 20 odd clubs.

Your socialist spreading of resources would lead to the European Super League.

More like 30 + clubs, 32 in the NFL for instance.

The So called super league is already very close in truth, most leagues Europe have been distorted by European Money coming back from Uefa competitions, that distorts the individual leagues.

I wouldn't be in favour of it, but it's coming.

My point in the Americans though was that within those limited elite leagues, the money and players are shared out better than in Europe, they at least try.

The fact that City STILL have to cook the books after a decade of being at the top of the league shows the issue with those clubs.

The draft system in OZ was also deemed illegal under restraint of trade laws by the federal court but the AFL just carry on with it and the players haven't fought it.

Madrids mouthpiece in full on tap up mode for Bellingham. Likely he will end up there if their interest is bona fide. I see there alot of chatter from Liverpool fans about signing him but I'd be absolutely flabbergasted of they spend €150m on anyone, never mind the kind of wages he'll be looking for. Madrid are also massively more attractive, regular winners of the big trophies and with some of the best young midfielders in the world already there in comparison to an aging and regularly crocked midfield at lfc. The only thing I can see being a determining factor is Klopp. Madrid are very volatile in terms of their managers and willingness to sack whereas JK is as bullet proof as anyone in the game.

So after the British mini Budget the average premier League footballer will be £250k a year richer.

Conte being linked with a return to Juve.

Can’t see Liverpool getting Bellingham. If City want him, he’ll be theirs. No way Liverpool can compete with a state backed team who also appear to have so many wonderfully generous sponsors.