FINANCIAL FAIR PLAY will make the competition even more unfair

[debussy]

When the January transfer window closes, the biggest clubs in the game will once again have purchased the best players from their smaller counterparts. A tale that is able to repeat itself because of one thing only: Money. A whole lot of it. UEFA's Financial Fair Play wants to put an end to these excesses, but research has revealed that the rules

Comments

[connorblond]

Well, Bayern hasn't bought any players this winter break.

But yeah. It is a problem.

[debussy]

I should note that the article dates back to September of last year, so while the issue still stands -and it's still relevant- the author used the summer transfer season as a reference instead of this one ;-)

[connorblond]

Yeah. It really is a problem.
The question is - what to do about it?

[debussy]

I'm not so sure. Initially, I thought the Financial Fair Play rule would be a good solution, but after delving more into it -and as is made evident by this article- it certainly isn't the "be all and end all". I think introducing a limit to what European clubs are allowed to pay their players could be a start? Or at least would help a little...

[marsyke]

exactly like how it's done in American sports competitions. Because of this simple rule, American sports are exciting to watch every year

[debussy]

The Netherlands don't want a joint competition. Either we stay apart and small and fail to compete with the biggest competitions. Or we make a big competition and try to compete at a level closer to the European big 5.

Commenting on this particular remark especially, because I'm Belgian myself and I know for a fact that Belgium doesn't really want a joint league either (at least the fans don't). Which is incredibly frustrating, because we're going to ruin both of our chances to compete properly on a European level. The Europa League is -realistically- the best we can hope for.

To be be honest, I might be more interested in our competition if it consisted of both Belgian and Dutch teams. :-/

[marsyke]

There are some voices in Belgium that want it but it's a far away dream. There was a joint competition in women's football but the Dutch clubs didn't want to continue it. Which is a shame.
Yeah it would be more interesting and it would generate more money. But fans want their small local club to have a chance to compete against Anderlecht. If the competitions merge, the difference between the clubs that get into that competition and the ones who don't will only get bigger.

[debussy]

fans want their small local club to have a chance to compete against Anderlecht

Of course, and I understand that completely. It's just unfortunate (though again, understandable) that said fans fail to look at the bigger picture and realize Dutch/Belgian football would only benefit from a merger as a whole. Their club wouldn't, of course, but on a European level the potential for growth would be considerable. Not to mention that the competition itself would ultimately consist out of more interesting teams to watch. (i.e. stronger clubs competing against each other) I also think that there's enough talent in both the Jupiler Pro League and Eredivisie to make the end result interesting? Smaller clubs would have to be sacrificed, yes, but (and I hate to be the Devil's advocate here) it'd be for the greater good, looking at it from a football perspective.

Of course we'd have to adjust to a new system, as well. The play-offs have been a point of discussion and discontent for years now, both among fans and analysts.

[bumie]

very interesting read, I understand where those ideas came from; Financial Fair Play and putting a limit for players salaries but I don't think there is an easy way to achieve that, putting a limit is unfair for the players in big clubs and I prefer that the money goes to players with ugly cars than going to shady business, *comparing this with American sport is really not helpful*, but Financial Fair Play could be effective somehow. *if I understand it correctly lol*

[dextrosinistral]

ty for this post, it has been an interesting read! I will have to come back sometime when I have more time to follow all the links and continue to read further

[chrysa]

I will admit to looking through but not reading the other comments so these are mostly just my own thoughts, opposed to based off anyone else's.

So first thought: this current form of financial fair play is, in fact, not fair. I think everyone can recognize and agree to that. I think another thing that can be recognized, from capitalism, is that: you make more money when you have more money - because you have more capital to invest to cushion your risk. And like the law of momentum, things in real life also have a tendency to stay the state they are currently in.

I did balk at some of the accusations in the piece though. Yes, my feathers were partly ruffled because I am an Arsenal fan, but I think more than that, this article fails to accommodate the human factor in all of this. I can't really speak for Liverpool (since the situation isn't the same) but if you look at Arsenal and Man Utd's

[chrysa]

3) Require leagues to negotiate televised rights as a league, and payout by league placement. Mostly looking at you, Real and Barca.

4) Put the onus on private industry to pad the rest of players' paychecks. That's how american sports work. But IDK no one in america complains about salary caps. If anything, it has kept sports from running away like the way our political systems have with corrupt through money. Ugh.