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Vital Villa Opinion. The Scourge Of Modern Football?

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The scourge of modern football? For me, it was the Bosman ruling which handed over far too much power to players and their agents. But that`s been overtaken by the Financial Fair Play rules, which suits no club other than the top four who seem to be able to get around the rules without much of a penalty or have such low penalties that (the likes of Manchester City especially) the fines end up being loose change for their owners.

The game is run by self interest and total numpties really. It is perfectly illustrated by these rules where a club like Aston Villa aren`t allowed to spend money that they can afford to spend, without debt* to further improve their position.

*Debt is where the rules should have been focussed but of-course, that then would have impacted on the darling clubs of Europe and we can`t have that can we? So the rich clubs get richer and the rest are left at a disadvantage.

I said in an article recently, I Really Don’t Care About This January’s Transfer Window. and it is all because we are now being forced to look at loans instead of being able to use our financial muscle to buy players. Or as I rather indelicately (and probably unfairly) said in another article, Errr. Ok Then. Manchester United Feeder Club We Are Then. My bitterness and angry is at how the rules have slanted us to have to do this, not the fact we are (rightly) playing the game by the rules.

Villa CEO, Keith Wyness, has himself said how bad the rules are. He told Radio WM, as well as talking about it with The Bish Interviews Keith Wyness. CEO ‘I’m Happy Shocker’

“We`re very confident we`ll not be breaching Financial Fair Play rules. We`re absolutely sure we`ve got the strategy in place. I`ve always said that next season will be challenging but again we`ve got a strategy in place to try and handle that (if we don`t get promoted).”

Adding, “Financial Fair Play is a very boring and complex subject. The politics around it are also potentially changing right now. I believe it`s a very bad rule – I can`t think of any other business where you can buy a business and not be allowed to put your own money into it to improve it.


And exactly as most of us have deduced, it`s put the balance totally away from any club other than the top few having a chance. “All it`s done is protect the position of the top six clubs like Chelsea etc and not allow anybody else to challenge them. If we wanted to put £100m into Aston Villa, we`re not allowed to. It`s based on losses, and over a three year calculation.”

Hey ho I guess. But if we don`t get promotion this season, the FFP will really kick in as the last years parachute money is only around £14million so we`d have to cut our cloth accordingly. All eyes on promotion then!

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Walking Where Angels Fear To Tread