25 Jan 2026 20:40:20
Ed a quick query to you or any1 that's in the know.
I keep here people saying 70-100m in the bank to spend on players, am I naive in thinking that you can spend unless you can support it as in what you spend now needs to have influence for the next 4years so your stupid gdpr thing works.
{Ed007's Note -
UEFA's financial regulations (FSR), formerly known as Financial Fair Play (FFP), were overhauled in 2022 and are now officially called Financial Sustainability Regulations (FSR).
As of 2026, the transition period is complete, and clubs must adhere to the permanent, stricter requirements. The system is built on three core pillars: Solvency, Stability, and Cost Control.
1. Cost Control (Squad Cost Rule)
This is the most significant addition to the regulations. It limits a club's total spending on its squad relative to its revenue.
The Cap: Spending on player and coach wages, transfers (amortization), and agent fees is limited to 70% of club revenue.
Timeline: After a phased introduction starting at 90% in 2023/24, the permanent 70% ceiling applies fully from the 2025/26 season onwards.
Purpose: To directly link squad costs to income and limit wage and transfer fee inflation.
2. Stability (Football Earnings Rule)
Replacing the old "break-even" rule, this measures the difference between a club's relevant income and expenses over a three-year period.
Acceptable Deviation: Clubs are allowed a loss of €60 million over three years (doubled from the previous €30 million).
Good Health Bonus: An additional €10 million annual loss may be permitted if a club is deemed to be in "good financial health".
Exemptions: Spending on infrastructure, youth development, women’s football, and community projects is excluded from these loss calculations to encourage long-term investment.
3. Solvency (No Overdue Payables)
This pillar ensures that clubs settle their debts promptly to protect creditors and the integrity of competitions.
Quarterly Audits: Clubs are monitored every quarter (June, September, and December) to ensure there are no overdue payments to other clubs, employees, or tax authorities.
Strict Deadlines: Debts must be settled by specific dates (e.g., July 15, October 15, January 15).
Key Concepts in 2026 Compliance:
Amortization: Transfer fees are not recorded as a one-time cost but are spread over the length of a player's contract (capped at 5 years to match Premier League rules and prevent long-term accounting loopholes).
Fair Value: All transactions, including sponsorship deals, are checked to ensure they reflect market value, preventing owners from artificially inflating revenue.
Sanctions: Penalties are progressive and include fines, point deductions, squad size restrictions, prohibition on registering new players, and exclusion from European competitions.
25 Jan 2026 20:58:06
Surely we can’t be near it we don’t spend anything and just sell all our decent players.
{Ed007's Note - We are miles onside with the Regs.}
25 Jan 2026 21:10:10
We are Ed, but only because of TV money mainly Sky. Look at Sky’s profits for the last 2 years… I’m not saying we can’t spend money but without TV revenue we’re one of the only 5-6 clubs in Britain that would survive. So when we talk about aligning wages snd expenses with revenue, I do think the board are right to be cautious.
25 Jan 2026 22:00:58
The figure in the accounts for money in the bank was around 77.8 million.
That does not mean we have 77.8 million to spend, as that money also has to pay all your bills for the rest of the season. Football clubs tend to get the majority of their revenue at the start of the season.
In our last accounts our revenue was 145 million and we were allowed to spend 70% of that on transfers, wages and agent fees. That equates to 101.5 million.
As ed said, we are well below that amount and if we had invested in a timely manner in the summer, we would have likely avoided all the push that has happened this season.
However, because the board have messed up so badly our revenue and future spend for next season is going to take a massive hit. I have mentioned this many times but we are now in a position were we cannot spend freely on transfers despite having plenty of cash.
The reason we cannot spend freely is due to our massive drop in revenue and the fact that transfer fees are amortised, that along with wages will appear on next year's expenses.
So we have 3 options this window.
1. Be cautious with spending so we don't have to worry about expenses next season. This is most likely in my opinion and I would expect yo see loans and small transfer fees this window.
2. Push the boat out and worry about next season when the time comes, which would likely mean high value or high wage players being offloaded in the summer. I doubt our conservative board would go this.
3. Sell high value players this window so our revenue is better next season and we can spend freely. We may also see this happening.
25 Jan 2026 22:25:51
Don’t think we have high value players weejoe, No2 for me ie Mcgregor.
25 Jan 2026 23:12:48
Weejoe,
IF the board do anything this coming week, it's highly likely to be point 1 - loans and possibly one modest fee (he types in hope rather than expectation) .
Point 3 should/ better take place in the summer as a matter of course, we've got players who are likely to depart for new clubs anyway, we've got a few that need to go and importantly, we need quality through the door to essentially perform a rebuild.
Personally, I think Maeda, Hatate and CCV will leave at the end of this season, probably joined by a few more.
On this, however this season pans out, I'd be inclined to retain MON and his staff, at the very least to ensure we identify and sign players in the summer to make us better equipped for pre season no matter who the next manager is.
This board are painfully slow at getting deals over the line and should this season go t*ts up and they say cheerio to MON and staff, we could end up with no management team and a depleted squad.
That would just add more insults to the self inclicted injuries our club has already sustained.
Just my thoughts.
25 Jan 2026 23:25:57
So we can spend 30millionish and still be sorted or is that 10mil on a player on 80g a week on a 4 year contract. I'm useless on this that's why i'm querying. I read lots abot this money but what can we actually spend to buy and add to wage struct.
25 Jan 2026 23:26:48
Thanks wee joe I think i'm cramping it. Much appreciated.
26 Jan 2026 06:07:37
The truth of the matter is none of us know exactly how much we can spend this window as we don't have access to real time accounts. All we know is there is scope to spend but as we have money in the bank and are under budget for what we can spend.
However, at the same time we need to be mindful of next season due to the predicted downturn in revenue, caused mostly by our boards mismanagement. I am predicting 25/ 26 revenue to drop from 145 million to around 100 million. This means the amount we can spend next season will take a massive hit due to UEFA financial sustainability regulations.
Soo not only has our board fecked up one season, they have fecked up next seasons too and if Sevco win the league, their revenue will overtake ours after next season, so it has the possibility to have a long lasting effect.