Whether we pay in one lump or on the drip makes no effect on FFP as they go in the books the same way ie amortised over the life of the contract.
If the fee is broken up though it’s put through as two, three, four different payments (whatever the terms are). It’s far better for us financially to pay say £100m in two £50m payments than in full in one go.
If we do one deal like that then every deal will be expected to be the same going forward. RB get £100m then we try to do a deal with say Valencia for ‘X’ player and they'll say, “hang on, you paid RB the full amount off the bat, we want our £80m up front too or no deal”. We’d soon run out of money doing business that way, £50m sat in our account or even the “it’s only £15m more” amount people like to spout, are all gathering interest (albeit small amounts). It’s gone if it’s sat in someone else’s thought and does us no favours.
People like to moan it’s only £5m, it’s only £15m more but those amounts pay for other things like staff wages, enhanced features at the ground, club travel or hotels etc and so on. It’s not just money that sits there gathering dust, every penny we accumulate will be earmarked for something no matter how big or small.
We are not Tesla with $1.2b sat there in expendable income and we’ve no idea how to spend it.
Another example, let’s get hypothetical here… Let’s say we get found guilty, we get deducted points, trophies/honours (I can’t see that happening at all but humour me). Do you think we’d get away without being sued by ex players, other clubs, ex managers etc? I can tell you now it’d open up a whole world of hurt for us and having £100’s of millions sat in an account gathering interest, is an insurance policy.
As frustrating as this deal may seem, I get it and feel it too, I understand City not wanting to pay in full or even pay “just £5m more”. If it’s a £50k car you’re looking to buy and the dealer suddenly says ”yeh we value it at £55k to be honest” are you stumping up the other £5k or you standing your ground? If anything you’re trying to get it for £45k so in essence your £10k apart in the deal. Now scale that up to the numbers City are dealing with and it’s even more crucial we stick to our plan.
