Will Financial Fairplay change the game or create a new one?‏

Nathan Kosky asses the new plans brought forward by football league director Greg Clarke, to try and get control over massive debt levels in English football.


With the news this week that Football League clubs have voted to phase in spending caps related to a clubs turnover, can this really be the first overdue step towards managing football's finances in a sensible manner?

Greg Clarke has outperformed previous Football League chiefs and not only proposed the framework for a sustainable league, but actually managed to get it voted through by previously disinterested club Chairmen. For this he should be commended and has potentially made a crucial change in British football.

With the balance sheets of many clubs, especially in the Championship, scary enough to make any sensible investor run a mile, my feeling is that - for some - the ever decreasing circles of money in which they have been able to survive are now surely almost gone. Indeed, it may be that capping player salary budgets from 2012 actually comes too late for some clubs who will run the administration roller coaster in the coming year. However, Mr. Clarke's initiative has created the opportunity for owners to finally act responsibly.

Greg Clarke is pushing ahead with Financial Fair-Play rules.

This will require both players and agents to act in a similarly realistic manner. With supposedly less money sloshing around the leagues, perhaps a longer if less lucrative contract once again becomes the most attractive deal to many a player currently lavished with five figure weekly earnings from clubs millions in debt. Nice work if you can get it, but has austerity finally reached football? Well, I am not betting MY house on the prudence of football agents or club owners thank you.

With clubs- particulary those in the Premier League following the UEFA financial fairplay model- actually 'play the game'? Football is the model of capitalism in the 21st century; can you really curtail a Middle-East sheikh's spending power and ambition in the name of fairness? Will the likes of Ronaldo stop asking - and getting - mind-blowing wages? From the transfer dealings mooted this summer already, it's hard to see this mega-spending and greed from owners and players coming to a grinding halt anytime soon.

Indeed, it would suggest the legal loopholes may already have been found and the lawyers primed; or else Roman is simply buying his executive box at Stamford Bridge for £300 million next season. I cannot see any signs, or even mention of, preparing for financial fair play from football's nouveau riche.

Is Roman simply going to purchase the most expensive season ticket in history?

Is financial sanity more important than short term gain for people with more money than sense? Well let's wait and see, but if Uefa and Clarke's initiatives do manage to change the game, even at a lower level alone, then I think we'd all welcome the benefits this would bring. Just ask a Portsmouth fan, or Crystal Palace, or Southampton....

Find Nathan on Twitter @nathsky.