Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.

Premier League clubs could receive money from Manchester City's £50m FFP fine

From today's Daily Telegraph

"Every Premier League club would get a slice of Manchester City’s world-record fine for breaching Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations under plans being drawn up by European football’s governing body.
Even relegated Norwich City, Fulham and Cardiff City would receive their cut of what could end up being £50 million surrendered by the Premier League champions after their £1 billion spending spree under Sheik Manour bin Zayed al Nahyan fell foul of FFP rules.
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that Uefa president Michel Platini and general secretary Gianni Infantino plan talks with the chairman of the European Club Association, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, to discuss precisely how to redistribute the fines levied from the FFP sanctions announced last week.
Platini and Infantino want what is a pot worth up to £114.5m to be shared not only among all 237 clubs competing in Europe this season and next but also teams in domestic leagues affected by their rivals’ overspending.
That would apply to five countries, including England, meaning a total of around 300 clubs stand to benefit from the transgressions of City, Paris St Germain and seven other sides.If the money is distributed evenly, the most any team could hope to receive is approximately £380,000, although it may be as little as £138,000 if those guilty of FFP breaches avoid paying their whole fine by fulfilling certain obligations.
Uefa is hoping the prospect of such solidarity payments will reduce the threat of clubs appealing the settlements agreed with those who broke the rules.
It is understood no team has yet mounted a formal challenge ahead of Monday’s deadline for doing so. The Telegraph has learnt that Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United have no plans to appeal City’s penalty. Everton, who stand most to gain if the Manchester club are expelled from the Champions League after finishing fifth in the Premier League, are thought to have little appetite to do so either.
Speaking for the first time since City were found guilty, chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak defended the spending which landed the club in trouble. In what could be perceived as a subtle dig at debt-laden United, Al Mubarak claimed FFP preserved the wrong type of financial model. He told City’s website: “We don’t pay a penny to service any debts. For me, that’s a sustainable model. However, our friends in Uefa seem to believe otherwise. They have their view, we have ours.
“I disagree with their views but we are pragmatic. If it means sometimes to take a pinch, we’ll take a pinch.” The biggest current threat to FFP will be removed in the coming weeks after the Europe Commission indicated it would snub a legal challenge to the cost-control measures led by the man who helped bring about the Bosman ruling.
The EC has formally notified European football’s governing body that it intends to reject the complaint filed by Italian agent Daniel Striani, who claimed FFP broke European Union competition laws.
Striani, represented by Bosman lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont, has also been sent a letter making it clear the EC “does not intend to conduct a further investigation” into his allegation.
In its preliminary conclusion after more than a year considering Striani’s complaint, the Commission ruled he had no “legitimate interest” to bring it in the first place.
It noted any effects of FFP on the activities of player’s agents were “indirect and speculative” and said claims the measures would result in a decrease of transfer activities or transfer fees were “not substantiated”.
A final decision formally rejecting the complaint is expected in a few weeks."

Bloody ridiculous that Premier League clubs should receive a penny of this and if they do they should collectively volunteer to set up a fund with the money to donate it to football at grass-roots level. The amounts involved would pay a couple of players' weekly salaries for each team yet could pay salaries for a number of full and part time coaches, facility improvements, transportation, new pitches etc.

Comments

  • This really is quite incredible.

    Just another reason why the Premier League (as opposed to just Scudamore) needs to be abolished and replaced by a single governing body for football in this country (not led by Greg Dyke), and probably with a regulator appointed by Parliament (OFFOOT).
  • I think we would probably see the argument more if we were a Premier League club ;)

    The idea is that they are repaying the people who suffered as a cause of their overspend... Makes sense to me... :S
  • Lovely, thanks very much :)
  • Huskaris said:

    I think we would probably see the argument more if we were a Premier League club ;)

    The idea is that they are repaying the people who suffered as a cause of their overspend... Makes sense to me... :S

    We all suffer. Every time the finance gap widens between the FAPL and the division below, the whole of football suffers. And it is not their money. The money belongs to English professional football and its customers.

    English fans are sleepwalking their way towards the FAPL as a closed franchise. Thankfully there are bodies such as Supporters Direct who see through it.

  • Huskaris said:

    I think we would probably see the argument more if we were a Premier League club ;)

    The idea is that they are repaying the people who suffered as a cause of their overspend... Makes sense to me... :S

    We all suffer. Every time the finance gap widens between the FAPL and the division below, the whole of football suffers. And it is not their money. The money belongs to English professional football and its customers.

    English fans are sleepwalking their way towards the FAPL as a closed franchise. Thankfully there are bodies such as Supporters Direct who see through it.

    I can't, personally, see how the money paid as a fine for breaking UEFA rules belongs to English professional football, and I find it worrying when people talk about entitlement of other people's money. I am not a socialist so I would clearly not be in favour of redistributing wealth to the poor (not a discussion to be had here in any event) but I just can't see any logical reason as to why it should be given to the English clubs, and even it it were I can't see how any distribution will be acceptable to all.

    Also I would suggest that Man City overspending will have no, direct, impact on the financial stability or competitive advantage that exists in the forth division, or below, where clubs would call themselves professional.
  • Is it April Fools' Day again ?
  • What a bunch of absolute ar$eholes the Premier League, as a collective and a body, are.

    The original plan of the Football League's FFP was for any fines raised to be distributed among the other clubs, who had not broken the rules.

    The Premier League, including their relegated clubs on parachute money, decided this wasn't in their interests and put pressure on the FL - by threatening to withhold funds distributed down the leagues - to amend the new rules so that funds went to charity instead.

    As always...one rule for them and one for everyone else.

    If only the original recommendations had been taken up and serious point deductions, instead of or in addition to fines, were in place.
  • edited May 2014
    You couldn't make it up.
  • Did he really describe a £50m fine as "taking a pinch?"
  • mrbligh said:

    Did he really describe a £50m fine as "taking a pinch?"


    In fairness he's probably made 50m since this thread was started
  • Sponsored links:


  • mrbligh said:

    Did he really describe a £50m fine as "taking a pinch?"

    I'm sure he used the phrase to point out that it is nothing to him, just as the losses his club have made are also nothing to him and completely sustainable in the long term - what FFP is really supposed to be working towards.

    I agree with TelMc32, the punishment should be something that money can't buy. A points deduction or sling them out of a competition or ban them from signing any more players until they have got their accounts to comply.

    The issue, however, is that the rules have been designed to protect all clubs but the end result is that they have limited all spending, not just the spending of borrowed money.
  • This really is quite incredible.

    Just another reason why the Premier League (as opposed to just Scudamore) needs to be abolished and replaced by a single governing body for football in this country (not led by Greg Dyke), and probably with a regulator appointed by Parliament (OFFOOT).

    Prague - could we then get kicked out of UEFA/FIFA for government interference in the sports setup ?
    Know other countries have been suspended/threaten with suspension for similar in the past.
  • Why not insert the money into Grassroots Football or even it up and give it to the Conference North/South teams
  • Could cover the set up costs of the B teams....
Sign In or Register to comment.

Roland Out Forever!