In light of what’s just happened to Everton FFP is once again a hot topic, and I just wanted to highlight some clear facts a lot of people are missing that show how the people who run football are hypocritical and are an absolute joke when it comes to running their own rules
FFP was first established in 2009 for the sole purpose to prevent professional football clubs spending more than they earn in the pursuit of success, and in doing so not getting into financial problems which might threaten their long-term survival. - this was implemented after the events that happened to Leeds where we almost lost them as a club. This purpose quickly changed, forgetting about the small clubs being abused and focused towards small clubs becoming successful by closing the financial gap between them and the big super teams. We’ve already seen from the creation of the super league that the big teams feel that they are threatened and want maintain their status at all cost, this is why the rules were adapted post 2012
You might say that a team like Man City shouldn’t be able increase their ability to spend because of their owners. But with the creation of the premier league and it’s large injection of money for the big teams, it’s seem that they made it impossible to get to the same level as them without money
Then their is the simple fact that man city have never spent more than the likes of Man Utd, Real Madrid and Barcelona. They’ve simply closed the gap. People hate them for their success, but it’s not cause of money, their owners could take over man utd tomorrow without injecting money and turn them back into world beaters. They are the kind of owners everyone wants, smart owners who aren’t greedy, who don’t take money out
I understand that the rules are the rules, but maybe the rules are wrong and designed to keep the big clubs fat and to prevent to competition. If we can’t take the money away from the big clubs then how else do we challenge them besides the way man city have done?
If Newcastle’s owners weren’t state backed, but were just random billionaires operating exactly as they are now, no one would care what they’re doing, because they’re not doing everything in their power to circumvent the rules everyone else is following. Everyone’s issue with Newcastle is the potential political bollocks that comes with them, but that’s a separate issue entirely.
People take issue with Chelsea and City because they’ve come in, and quite obviously done everything they can to circumvent rules and plough unsustainable funds in to the clubs. This in turn has created genuine, inflated revenue streams for them and created a massive illegitimate advantage. A club spending its own earned money isn’t an issue whereas clubs being propped up solely by ownership investment definitely is.
I’ve never bought the argument that the historical advantage the mega-clubs have over smaller clubs is more “legitimate” than the advantages new money has brought to clubs like Chelsea and City. Of course they’d like everyone to accept this empty myth, but football has always been about haves and have-nots as long as I’ve been alive. The fact that a small club could overnight have unlimited resources to compete on the open market terrifies executives at clubs like Real Madrid, Bayern, Arsenal and United as it should, which is why we have things like FFP and an inevitable SuperLeague. Their historical closed-circle hegemony is not so safe in this new world as they may have to face actual open market competition for players and trophies. References to a club “spending its own money” as opposed to the money its owners invest is a bullshit smokescreen used by the mega clubs to justify their understandable concern that simply being big and well-known may not always be enough to produce results and maintain their status.
Football has always been about money and who spends the most. Just not at the level it is now.
Look up how Arsenal turned into a big club in the 1920s and 30s. They were the OG “Bank of England” club
Exactly. Newcastle always had the means to spend like they are doing now.