FFP facing legal challenge (updated pg 12)

Re: Wall St Journal Article on FFP

But such solutions would run against the interests of the clubs with the most political clout. Some of Europe's biggest clubs are, unsurprisingly, the loudest supporters of rules that entrench their dominance.

Well, who'd'a thowt it?
 
Re: Wall St Journal Article on FFP

gordondaviesmoustache said:
glyncity said:
People ask who will challenge the ffp rules through the eu courts , well in my opinion like the bosman it will be a dis-satisfied player .
Take the scenario , shrek has a major set to with bacon face , bacon face says " your going to rot in the reserves shrek , if i dont get the fee i want for you "
but unfortunately for shrek , none of the clubs with the financial ability to pay his fee plus his wages actually want him .
Harry over at QPR likes the lad and "finks hes a fantastic talent ", the owners are equally keen but unfortunately the ffp rules restrict them .
Shrek, his agent and his team of lawyers are adamant , he is a top player and as such deserves top wages , clearly it is a restraint of the fat granny shaggers human rights to negotiate in a free and competitive market and receive what he regards a fair price for his talents .
For shrek read any top striker in Europe who suddenly finds himself out of favour at one of the so called elite clubs , once the ffp rules come into play , only a very small number of clubs will even be able to afford the very top players , the players who are out of favour will be either forced to take large pay cuts or spend their time unwanted on the bench untill their value drops significantly and they become affordable , my guess is it wont be long before such a player challenges the ffp rules as a restraint of trade .
You are quite possibly right about a player challenging it, but not in the terms you mention. Not least because I'm struggling to imagine Taggart calling him Shrek to his face, as much as I'd love it to be true!

If Rooney is contracted to united, then subject to FIFA rules, they are entitled to play him as much or as little as they want, as long as they comply with the terms of the contract ie pay his wages etc.. He freely entered into that arrangement.

I can, however, see at some point FFP being challenged by a player as it could very well act as a restriction on the free movement of labour between EU member states, given the different income tax levels that operate in different countries and the fact that player wages can no longer be "subsidised" by clubs, as was the case previously.

This could act as a measure effectively stopping a player being able to move to a particular country to play with the same freedom as before, due to FFP. That is to say, that clubs in countries with lower income tax rates have a significant competitive advantage as a result of something imposed by UEFA. Surely this is not something that the EU could be comfortable with. Other high paid industries such as banking often operate on a 'net pay' basis, knowing that their top earners can command similar sums in other countries. FFP prevents this from happening and I reckon a well resourced and sufficiently motivated player could readily challenge it.

The resources and motivation could, of course, come from a number of sources.

The fact is that UEFA knew that what they wanted to do was very liekly to breach EU law so they ent to the clubs and asked them to do the donkey work and vote things through as acceptable.

Alas they failed to consider that the very clubs voting the 'rules' through could and are considered an unrepresentative cartel - the ECA.

These clubs who are in essence voting on behalf of all football clubs in Europe number fewer than 300 and are predominantly the same clubs year year year who benefit from the revenues derived from, you guessed it, UEFA competitions.

So in turning to an organisation whose membership is financially reliant on UEFA and who will from limiting access to such revenues by other clubs UEFA have in fact strengthened the case for it being anti-competitive under EU law.

The only positive feedback that UEFA have EVER been given by the EU/EC is that FFPR does not breach rules on state aid. Hardly a glowing reference.
 
Re: Wall St Journal Article on FFP

JoeMercer'sWay said:
I'd like City to take UEFA to the ECJ and then spend £250m on new players :D.

Sadly Sheikh Mansour isn't fun like that.

Seriously, I have no idea why the owners at City just dont do exactly that. They can feel free to carry on with a two pronged approach i.e. 1) continue to slash out and challenge the thing in court 2) invest heavily in the youth set up and attempt to "grow our own". They are not mutually exclusive.

How about if the owners feel they have spent enough on big name players already and dont want to keep spending under control. Even THEY dont have bottomless pockets......
 
Re: Wall St Journal Article on FFP

Apologies if I'm plagiarising someone else's post, but I think the reason why City haven't done this yet, Frank, is that if we can compete and comply, it keeps everyone else out thus making it cheaper for Sheikh Mansour. However if it gets blown out of the water as the article suggests it would then....! :)
 
Re: Wall St Journal Article on FFP

strongbowholic said:
Apologies if I'm plagiarising someone else's post, but I think the reason why City haven't done this yet, Frank, is that if we can compete and comply, it keeps everyone else out thus making it cheaper for Sheikh Mansour. However if it gets blown out of the water as the article suggests it would then....! :)


Understood and interesting point. IMHO I think that the lack of impact, expensive players brought in this past off season was due to the Not So Fair Play Rules. Now, that might not be the case.

Looking at the rules we all know that they are designed to maintain the status quo......
 
Re: Wall St Journal Article on FFP

strongbowholic said:
Apologies if I'm plagiarising someone else's post, but I think the reason why City haven't done this yet, Frank, is that if we can compete and comply, it keeps everyone else out thus making it cheaper for Sheikh Mansour. However if it gets blown out of the water as the article suggests it would then....! :)

I pointed this out a while back, don't know if it anyone else has though so won't take the credit, I think it's a fair point, I just hope Sheikh understands there's a happy medium and that splashing out a bit more than you'd ideally like can get you that bit more you want at the end.
 
Re: Wall St Journal Article on FFP

JoeMercer'sWay said:
strongbowholic said:
Apologies if I'm plagiarising someone else's post, but I think the reason why City haven't done this yet, Frank, is that if we can compete and comply, it keeps everyone else out thus making it cheaper for Sheikh Mansour. However if it gets blown out of the water as the article suggests it would then....! :)

I pointed this out a while back, don't know if it anyone else has though so won't take the credit, I think it's a fair point, I just hope Sheikh understands there's a happy medium and that splashing out a bit more than you'd ideally like can get you that bit more you want at the end.


Also the sheik and his team are all massively intelligent businessmen. They know the perception of city when it comes to finance in the national/international press isn't good. If we were the club who took the challenge against FFP (regardless of how backwards it is and how plain to see that is) the press/ idiots who pick up the sun would be frothing at the mouth about money-bag city trying to cheat the gloriously fair and just overlords at UEFA.

No need for bad press when we are more than able to comply/ let someone else pick up the bar tab.
 
Re: Wall St Journal Article on FFP

Dave Ewing's Back 'eader said:
But such solutions would run against the interests of the clubs with the most political clout. Some of Europe's biggest clubs are, unsurprisingly, the loudest supporters of rules that entrench their dominance.

Well, who'd'a thowt it?


gosh it almost sounds like self-interest protectionism from the current cartel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

crikeybobs and wowzers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Re: Wall St Journal Article on FFP

I'm going to try and defend FFP.

Why was FFP introduced? FFP is intended to prevent clubs from running major deficits year over year. We've seen this in club after club, rich owners pick a club, run huge deficits, and the team screws up and doesn't do what the owner hoped for, they sell or the club goes into administration. Seems like every week we hear a new story about a club that racked up a lot of debt and is in administration. It's unfortunate and something needed to be done. UEFA recognizes that for every Manchester City, who has a good owner who hires good people to actually make the goal a success, there are 5 or 10 failures. And then what you have a club taken away from the supporters on the whim of a billionaire who treated the club like a plaything. Portsmouth is an example, and I'm sure you can think of many others.

I've read through the thread and most arguments tend to be that this was all a conspiracy of the big clubs, even though at least half of the big clubs are in this position of racking up massive debt who would love to go along spending their fortunes propping up a club.

FFP exempts from its spending calculations money spent on infrastructure, which will encourage clubs to home-grow their talent over buying it on the market, and to build new stadiums and seek new revenue streams. Clubs can still buy on the market, but they will have to show that it's sustainable. It will really be like any other business where you have to grow at a sustainable pace --- UEFA is just mandating a sound business practice. Ensuring that all the clubs are not running major deficits is no different than bank regulators requiring banks to hold a certain percentage of deposits. Regulation is necessary.

Why is unlimited spending a bad thing? For one, it artificially inflates transfer fees and salaries, as the rich owners compete with each other for their favored players. And do you think the current system is "fair"? Clubs that consistently break even are completely disadvantaged against clubs that can fund unlimited deficits year over year. Eventually, the benefactor may get bored and leave. That can leave the club in an awful position. And of course, losing clubs means we lose history, entertainment value, culture, etc. etc. Imagine if you were a Rangers or Pompey fan. Through no fault of you or any other supporter, your club was fucked over by a rich **** and now you're in the shit. I wouldn't want to be in that position.

As for this lawyer guy, shame on all of you for not recognizing this guy has a vested interest in arguing these FFP rules are invalid. He can make millions trying to overturn them. Also, just because an attorney gives an opinion, doesn't mean it's correct. There are always two or three or four sides of an argument, and competition law is notoriously hard to predict because the rules are very theoretical and open to the whims of the court. Also, I would be very surprised if this was overturned. Cases often turn on the inherent justice of a law, and this law doesn't strike me as unjust in any way that a judge will care about. There are not enough restraints on either clubs or players to justify overturning it.

Finally, the real danger with FFP, as Arsene Wenger pointed out, is that big clubs will be able to challenge the rules through legal maneuvers and avoid the regulations altogether. You already see PSG trying every sneaky trick they can to circumvent them, and I can't even imagine what the Russian clubs will try. Our own deal with Etihad may be justified (as I think it probably is) because they are getting significant value from the name recognition they have now. But these fake commercial deals need to be addressed very seriously. That is the only plausible conspiracy theory I think could be a reality.
 
Re: Wall St Journal Article on FFP

The EC is pretty toothless. The ECJ has the actual power. The FFPR will be outlawed by the first team with the bottle to test it.

The bigger danger for us is if the UK leaves the EU. Then none of this matters and we could be back to the days of restrictions on foreign players and the EPL would fall behind other leagues due to the talent drain.
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.