Financial UNfair Play
It is the that time, aka transfer window time in the footballing universe when a certain term called #FinancialFairPlay gets thrown around a lot.
Now I know I am in the minority here & might be opening myself to a lot of public ire, but I prefer a footballing world without #FFP to one with the current rules. Rather than having the same clubs dominate in the medium to long term, I would like to see the established order overthrown in the short term through cash infusions. I would like to watch games that are competitive & leagues that have interesting narratives coz I’d always prefer a scrappy Leicester or Lille winning the league over the pedigreed perfection of a City, PSG or Juve.
What FFP does more than anything is ossify existing hierarchies in football, which I find inherently uninteresting and substantially immoral. What does it claim, and what does it do?
- If the goal were to lessen the influence of money on sports and prioritize skill when assembling teams, we would be discussing wage limitations and transfer caps. FFP doesn’t prevent money from buying good squads, it just restricts it to who can do that.
- If the point were to encourage financial sustainability and prevent rash spending, you could force owners to guarantee the increase in operating expenses for the club for however long (15-20 years). That’d ensure stability without benefitting pre-existing behemoths.
P.S: To be crystal clear, our first preference would always be for a footballing world that has fan ownership requirements, equitably distributed revenue, salary caps, transfer caps, high mandatory solidarity payments, restrictions on stockpiling young talent, and many such moves that haven’t even crossed my mind yet. However, in the absence of utopia, we prefer a footballing world without FFP to one with it!