Man Utd want fair play

[QPRDave]

Man Utd are all in favour of bringing in spending restrictions along with Dave Whelan. Funny that init? Suddenly Utd are being outspent and now want restrictions?
Now I think we all agree that footballers get paid too much, and transfer fees are climbing to unimaginable amounts of money, but if this is backed won't it put a stop to the chances of any one ever being able to challenge for the top honours? This to me would halt any dream we have of becoming a major force and make the Prem another Scottish Prem?
Now I know the likelihood is that one of 3 teams will win it, but won't this stifle competition? It will mean you are judged not by the players on the pitch but by the amount of people in the stand, I think this would be the death knell for football in this country, there would be no ambition just also rans. What do you think?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19499560

[stainrodisalegend]

Fair comment Dave. The thing about so-called fair-spending rules is they are only fair if you introduce them when everyone is equal. Clubs like Chelsea - and before them Blackburn -basically spent their way to becoming bigger clubs. Instead I'd be interested to see discussed a simple cap on the price any player can be sold for, a wage cap and a ban on under the table payments such as through endorsements etc through a far closer auditing of club accounts. If that can't be agreed better just to leave it as a total free market - at least that way smaller clubs such as ours have a chance of growing.

[coneysboots]

Man Utd are all in favour of bringing in spending restrictions along with Dave Whelan. Funny that init? Suddenly Utd are being outspent and now want restrictions?
Now I think we all agree that footballers get paid too much, and transfer fees are climbing to unimaginable amounts of money, but if this is backed won't it put a stop to the chances of any one ever being able to challenge for the top honours? This to me would halt any dream we have of becoming a major force and make the Prem another Scottish Prem?
Now I know the likelihood is that one of 3 teams will win it, but won't this stifle competition? It will mean you are judged not by the players on the pitch but by the amount of people in the stand, I think this would be the death knell for football in this country, there would be no ambition just also rans. What do you think?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19499560

What they are looking to do with this, will have the exact opposite effect of what they want to achieve. Rather than ensuring that teams can't spend their way to the title, like Blackburn, they will ensure that it will only be the big teams who will win any trophies, as they have the biggest fanbase and sposorship deals. The only example of a smaller club coming though and challenging recently was Wimbledon. That was one off, and is very unlkely to happen again. It's healthy that smaller teams can go onto achieve things, and if they don't mamange it well then boom and bust. How many Blackburn fans or Portsmouth fans would have gladly taken silverware if they knew what would happen in the future. I bet quite a few.
What the are looking to do is protect the smaller clubs from going under, but it will mean, as you say another SPL where only the big teams win trophies, and the smaller ones just go through the motions.
Better to have a couple of days in the sun, than constantly living on the shadow of others with no ambition? Maybe.

[w12dave]

Before blackburn, city and scum it was Utd who were spending silly money, they were the one who started this trend.

I remember one of their own player (roy keane) started throwing his toys out of the pram because he felt he wasn't getting paid enough compare to others footballers in the Italian and the Spanish league which didn't go down well with the Utd fans, cos the club said they are putting the tickets price up to pay his wages.

[lymehoop]

seems like United dont like the fact other clubs are making a serious assault on the title, they need to ask themselves why a football club as big as utd. have found themselves short of the old spondoolies

[Del]

Nobody can knock Utd for spending money over the years becasue they generate huge income by being a huge world name with a massive worldwide fanbase. They are the biggest club brand in the world for revenue.....

It's like telling the millionaire down the road he can't buy a ferrari becasue fred on the corner can't afford one on his £15k a year.

They were also very well run and had no debt until the Glazers somehow managed to buy the club, using it's own assets as collatarol....

It was Chelsea who in this country made the market farcical initially, and City have taken it to extremes followed now by PSG and a couple of the Russian clubs.

[silvercue]

Of course they support Finacial Fair Play - they always have.

Basically it makes Man Utd, Arsenal, Bacra and Real Madrid pretty much untouchable in the future.

FFP is about the least fair thing that could happen in football. Even Bayern will suffer as they don't make the TV money.

I am amazed that they got 10 of the PL chairman on side already though.

Not good for QPR. Although the TV deal is massive right now, other revenues are important and small clubs suffer.

An example is Wigan revenue was 50 million FY 2011. Man Utds was over 350 million. Competing with a club with 7 times the resources is not possible.

[MattyRangers]

Of course they support Finacial Fair Play - they always have.

Basically it makes Man Utd, Arsenal, Bacra and Real Madrid pretty much untouchable in the future.

FFP is about the least fair thing that could happen in football. Even Bayern will suffer as they don't make the TV money.

I am amazed that they got 10 of the PL chairman on side already though.

Not good for QPR. Although the TV deal is massive right now, other revenues are important and small clubs suffer.

An example is Wigan revenue was 50 million FY 2011. Man Utds was over 350 million. Competing with a club with 7 times the resources is not possible.

Im with this guy.

[silvercue]

Im with this guy.

Are you proposing

[QPRDave]

Fair comment Dave. The thing about so-called fair-spending rules is they are only fair if you introduce them when everyone is equal. Clubs like Chelsea - and before them Blackburn -basically spent their way to becoming bigger clubs. Instead I'd be interested to see discussed a simple cap on the price any player can be sold for, a wage cap and a ban on under the table payments such as through endorsements etc through a far closer auditing of club accounts. If that can't be agreed better just to leave it as a total free market - at least that way smaller clubs such as ours have a chance of growing.

Yeah I like the sound of that Stainrod, simple and sensible

[QPR Richard]

The only fair way is to take the average turnover of the league, and allow a certain percentage of that to be spent on players and salaries, so that each club had the same amount to spend in each area. This would ensure that no club ever got too big by having rich benefactors, like Chelski and City. The salary cap seems to work well in the NFL I believe.

This would have to be done UEFA-wide to stop players jumping from country to country in search of big paydays. Capping salaries and transfer fees would go a long way to evening up the game and give everyone a level playing field on which to compete. Football cannot go on the way it is because these inflated transfer fees and wages will destroy the game.

I think it would be good to limit each club to say, £50m in salaries for the 25-man squad and say, £50m for transfers, just as an example.

[klonk]

man utd never had any issues with this before abramovich... before then, the cost of their first choice team was double that of any other prem side (and that included the likes of beckham, scholes, giggs etc all costing nothing). suddenly, chelsea and man city can throw a bit of cash around and it's all not fair. after 20 seasons still only 5 teams have managed to win the league and, of those, only arsenal can make the slightest claim to have done so against the financial odds (although they still had far greater spending power than most clubs).

if they want fair play, then introduce a maximum purchase price, a wage cap applied at squad level, ensure that no starting 11 can cost more than twice the lowest cost...

[dave58]

Fair play ! They weren't screaming fair play when they were spending £30m on Ferdinand £30M on Berbatov £20 on Japp Stam and others? But now it looks like Man City are going to leave them behind with regard to spending power they want fair play! because City are likely to dominate the Prem for the next 10 years they want fair play.?
Because they know that if clubs are only allowed to spend what they bring in and as they are the biggest global brand brininging more through this, and this would put them back on the tree.
So I say ******** to fair play if clubs have wealthy owner's who want to plough in loads of dosh then so be it, as long as they have the clubs best interest. At heart? Managers will have to become better for those that don't.

[Will M]

If implemented poorly, this could very well end the dominance of the Premier League in the global market.

Without teams pouring money in to challenge United, then it could very well be them winning every year with the exception of Arsenal having the odd good year and nabbing a win. As much as I hate Chelsea, and think Manchester City spend obscene amounts of money it has enhanced the Premier League product. Attracting better players and managers, making the league more exciting by having more teams challenging for honours etc.

And it's not just Chelsea and City that have done it, as others have said Blackburn bought their way to a title. And Newcastle and Leeds played amongst the big boys by spending a load of dosh on players. And let's not forget Spurs attempts to spoil the party either.

Less competitive PL, means less TV money. If they do cut wages, then I'd imagine less top quality players would pick England to play in. There are a number of growing leagues, the Bundesliga and Serie A in Brazil have never been stronger, the Russians and Ukrainians are spending huge amounts to boost their teams too. Football is big business, and I really hope the Premier League have a good hard think on what the ramifications of a fair play policy may have. No one stays on top forever, and this could be the end of the boom of the PL era.

[QPRDave]

Some good views fellas, pretty much all of us agree that this fair play would be bad for competition