Derby....this just in!!

Sounds a bit like clutching at straws. I reckon under the current climate, the value of Derby's squad would be unlikely to cover my losses if my shed blew down in a gale.

 

That reads as they have deliberately delayed submitting their accounts to avoid a points deduction this season, would that be a fair assumption or have I misunderstood?
If correct I’m guessing that’s partly to avoid relegation this season and the impact it would have had on the value of the takeover.

 

It certainly looks that way, many clubs have been late in submitting accounts due to the pandemic but this set for Derby are for 2019 pre dating this. By comparison Barnsley’s accounts for a similar period were submitted in March 2020.

 

The thing that gets me most with these cubs that are making outrageous losses year after year, where on earth is all that money going? You look at Readings squad as an example and wonder how on earth you could lose over £40m in a 12 month period. The people sanctioning the insane expenditure on the wages of some bang average players need sectioning.

There has been a vanity in football far too long that fans of clubs have been all too eager to be part of. Paying transfer fees of x, paying x a week in wages. Even at championship level. And its never been sustainable. Indeed, its going to lead to existential threat. The most ridiculous of bubbles that still hasn't burst, but surely now it has to.

Sunderland, Ipswich, Bolton, Bury have all felt the pain and through force or choice have had to cut cloth differently. We've still got Forest, Reading, Derby, Wednesday, Birmingham in financial peril. Boro, QPR, potentially too. Brentford and Bournemouth could easily be in breach of FFP in the coming seasons if they don't go up and fail to cut their squads.

But as for Derby, they must be properly in the brown stuff. That they haven't filed accounts should be penalty in itself. That should be a requirement for league membership as it is. There's little reason at all to take as long in publishing information late and the only reason to do so is deliberate suppression of bad news.

 

Just think if Wigan had not admitted failure when they did and had the points deducted it would have been us relegated.
As you suggest Derby have held on until it is too late to act against them this season. A deliberate action to try to help them.
Had they been actually relegated on Saturday then they would be in the poo both in terms of relegation and delayed accounts.
They could possibly have started next season in the 3rd division and on minus 12 points to begin with.

 

Wigan went into admin not through false accounting but bad ownership

 

Sadly it won't get any better. Ashley Fletcher will get a big contract somewhere, even if he spends a bit of time on the free transfer market. I'd be surprised if the contract that Wednesday offered Grey was reflective of the fact that he was a free agent for so long.

This season, we've seen that a large majority of players in the Championship cannot pass the ball against a team that presses against them. Yet they're paid millions of pounds every year.

Worse still, this lunacy stops any chance of funds being distributed fairly. Why would the Premier League agree to send money down to a league that is already spending 10's of millions beyond what they earn every year, then leagues 1&2 are left behind.

There needs to be a live salary cap, based on % of turnover imo.

 

Wednesday should have gone down last season. Under the same principle we are applying. Given the 12point deduction would have stood at the time leaving not enough time for the appeal to take place without repercussions.
Good thing is they, suffered another season of misery.

 

I'm not sure it will be as bad as before to be honest. Quite a lot of clubs have reigned in spending on fees, and we'll have to see if covid has actually sped up the point of some financial sanity. Ironically, if there are less fees, our model is impinged considerably.. though as we've seen, if we can recruit well and with balance, we can perform to a decent standard.

I don't disagree in terms of caps etc, but is that legal? There were challenges in the lower leagues to caps so I can see it happening further up, and it wouldn't surprise me if the EFL are timid at the threat of a PL 2. I'd be very surprised if the clubs in financial peril didn't try and form a second breakaway.

It just blows my mind that the whole concept of a business is thrown out of the window in many football clubs. Break even, play at the best level you can, look after the fans. That's it.

 

For various reasons I can see the aforementioned clubs and others who won't or can't chase the PL dream and cash cow. Maybe adjust their approach to a similar model to ours.

It'll get to a stage (like Watford Norwich) like this season where just the yoyo clubs just swap places season after season apart from the odd anomily every now and again that crashes the party.

Forest Birmingham Stoke Cardiff Wednesday Derby etc fans must be looking at the table scratching their heads thinking "how the hell did Barnsley do that?"

 

3 times

 

I think he's referring to the timing. They dropped a massive boll ock in hindsight.

 

Maybe the answer is really simple:
Any club competing in the league have to have their accounts in by end of league to be accepted following year.
Any club failing to do so is either not accepted into league and/or and club failing FFP does not qualify for the TV revenue share and instead gets split by clubs that adhere.

 

I think the chances of that being voted through is unlikely. I think year ends run til June, and I think contracts generally run to then too, so covers the full season and part of the close season. A club that requires an audit isn't going to get their accounts filed in a few weeks to give assurance to the football league to confirm the following seasons line up.

Though I would imagine you could formalise a penalty schedule for failing to file accounts. 6 point deduction for failing to meet the companies house requirement and a point for every additional month late to be administered at the time of offence.

 

Year end doesn’t have to be June just when books have to be submitted?
Just using it as an example of a policy that could refuse them revenue. The structure and trigger could be different.
I agree it’s highly unlikely to be voted in though as too many clubs would fall could of it.

 

I have a feeling a couple of clubs moved them to delay reporting bad info, so you could move them, I don't think they are fixed by the EFL.

You still have a legal requirement to file accounts from the year end though, and it does make sense to cover a full season in a period of accounts given how circumstances can change so much from one year to the next. So shortening the period in which clubs report is unlikely to be allowed and it could be deemed unreasonable as some audits and reporting can be quite complex.

 

Seems very unlikely to me, but would absolutely love it.

 

You don’t have to shorten though?
According to Archerfield we submitted our accounts for the same period as Derby in March 2020, so by saying by the end of that season leaves plenty of time.
The key point I was making was that if the accounts were not submitted and you failed FFP you would lose out.

 

I thought you meant shortening the reporting requirement for the previous financial year.

Where it gets messy is that punishment will always be after the season where the infringement occurred with FFP breach. So if you breach 2020/21, you report lawfully in March 2022, it takes time for EFL to analyse and have its hearings, you could well be beyond the 2021/22 season.

Something needs doing, but I'm not sure what and I'm not sure if clubs have the appetite to vote it in or that the EFL have the teeth to make it happen or avoid upsetting those same clubs who want a EPL 2.

 

I don't think salary caps will be illegal, they manage to do it in both codes of rugby, but would need agreement from a majority of EFL clubs, and I guess the PFA, which won't happen. I think they already have something in league 1&2 relating to salary vs turnover, but not sure how strongly it is enforced, if at all.

Specifically on Derby, there are a couple of things that I don't understand, around the idea of deducting points next season;

• Wednesday's was deferred because by the time they reached the verdict, there wouldn't be time to hear an appeal before the end of the season. But in this case, it is the appeal that's been heard, Surely that's final?
• The season doesn't officially finish until after the play off final. That's why Wigan's appeal and the EFL's appeal against Macclesfield were heard after the last game. In which case, if a decision has been made, how can it be deferred?