In the early 90's we where told, that by the mid to late 90's we had to have a all seater stadium, so like the good little boys we are, we sold all our best players and stopped investing in the playing squad to comply with the rules, 20 years on we still have clubs i the second tier of English football who have just carried on as normal wile other clubs left it 15 years before getting the local authority to build them one. Now it's happening all over again with FFP When are we going to start learning our lesson ?
I don't know about anyone else on here, but I'd rather support a club that did things the right way. It might be to the detriment on the pitch, but at least we can look at ourselves in the mirror...
I agree with you, but I do think NIGHTMARE has a point. I can remember Barnsley being told we had to go all-seater, yet years later, Fulham were playing in the Premier League with terracing. Same thing is happening again. Teams like us are trying to live within our means, whilst other clubs just laugh in the face of the regulations. Clubs should just be put under an embargo to stop them spending money they don't have.
We have learnt our lesson. We went in to administration and we won't be doing that again. Not adhering to the FFP rules means spending money we haven't got which puts the future of the club in doubt. Whether the FFP rules are there or not, we should live within our means and only spend money we have. Anyway, going all seater didn't do us any harm. Within 3 years we were promoted to the Premier League for the first time in our history and played the type of football that fans of many clubs have never seen.
I agree with the point you're making Jay but the problem I have with this FFP arrangement is that the playing field is already uneven and being the pioneers of initiatives like this doesn't do anything to level things up. We should not have played our hand until we had to and then only if everybody else was playing by the same rules or it is just pointless.
The whole FFP thing is a farce. I think most of us knew it would be when it was announced. But I don't think we had any choice other than to do what we have been doing. And I'm not sure it had anything to do with FFP. Patrick Cryne decided he wasn't going to continue pumping money in to the club. I have no problem with that at all, it's his money, we shouldn't have to rely on him. So, to spend money we haven't got we need to borrow it from somewhere. We haven't got anything to put up as collateral to get a loan. The club don't own the land or the stadium or anything. It's not just the banks who would have laughed us out of their offices, loan sharks like The Sterling Consortium, who Doyle borrowed from, wouldn't touch us either because they couldn't get anything out of us if we deferred on our repayments. I suppose we could have spent our entire budget for the season (all the season ticket money) in the close season signing a few quality players, but then we wouldn't have been able to pay the wages and our creditors would have gone to court for a winding up order to put us in to liquidation. The gates would have shut by September. We haven't just agreed to stay within the confines of FFP on moral grounds, we simply have had no other choice. Spending money we don't have wasn't an option for us because we simply couldn't get our hands on it. I'm not saying we tried to, just that if we had wanted to we couldn't That may all be changing now. Our chairman is a partner in the law firm that is representing clubs who are fighting FFP. We've had no word from the club that we're still sticking to what we said a couple of years ago. Maybe Mr Cryne has decided to dip in to his personal fortune again, I don't know, but he is the only source available to us for extra funds.
I can see where you are coming from, but in practise Fulham didn't break any rules regarding all seaters. Those clubs that were in the top 2 divisions at the point the regulation came into force had 3 years to comply. Every other club has 3 years from the point they reach the second tier for the first time since the regulation came in. Fulham spent years in the bottom leagues, so were not subject to the regulation, and then went straight through the second tier within 3 years IIRC, which is why they were in the prem and still had terraces.
Only us and Blackpool made a profit last year. Look where we are in the division. Look at our squads. The 'good guys' are being punished. Football's ******.
How are they being punished if they made a profit? Only 3 teams can be promoted so most of those who gambled their soul will sooner or later go into admin and end up like Coventry & Portsmouth. Even if we'd cheated and spent money we didn't have, we wouldn't be challenging for promotion but chances are we would be in admin again. It's just a matter of time. I agree though football is ******, my prediction is that the next couple of years will see a lot of clubs go under.
BFC are an absolute joke of a club......kills me to say it having spent many a year watching em home and away. I see absolutely nothing to inspire me at all, whether this be on or off the pitch.