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FFP. PSR.
What is FFP? What is PSR?
FFP is Financial Fair Play.
PSR stands for Profit and Sustainability Rules.
This has been brought in to basically stop teams being taken over, spend a load of money trying to reach certain heights. We have seen in the the past and the near past. I could name 4 or 5 teams of the top of my head that have spent money on their squad hoping to achieve promotion or maybe make their side a regular in the Champions League, fail, then have to enter administration as their out goings well out weigh their earnings.
This usually results in the team dropping a league or two at best. We have seen the devastation of Bury FC who had to drop of out the English Football League leaving only 23 teams in the league, part way through the season. Things like this have profound effects on the area of the football club as it can have an effect on so many people's jobs.
We've also seen clubs like Portsmouth, Derby County and the mighty Leeds United. They were once a big Premier League team and because of financial decisions they end up down as low as League One. These rules are brought in to try to prevent these kind of stories happening quite so often as they were maybe 20 years ago or so.
What punishments have been implemented for breaking the rules?
A few teams have been given point deductions for breaking the rules. There is no exact guidelines for how many points a team is deducted for how much they break the rules by. Everton broke the PSR rule by £16.6 million over three years. As a result in November 2023 they were deducted 10 points. This brought them down the league table towards and into the relegation zone. They then appealed the decision to be deducted 10 points. They won the appeal and the decision was heard just before their last game of the season and in the end were only deducted a total of 6 points.
In the same 2023/2024 season Leicester City were accused of breaking the PSR rules. However, The Foxes weren't found guilty. They appealed the accusations that were thrown at them and nothing came of it. Leicester were subsequently relegated regardless of having no punishments. They then bounced straight back into the Premier League at the first time of asking, finishing above Ipswich Town and Leeds United in an amazing points record season for the top three places in the Championship.
On the other hand Nottingham Forest were not as lucky as their rivals. According to the rules, as Forest were a newly promoted team they were restricted to reporting a maximum loss of £61 million across 3 seasons. £13 million for the two seasons they spent in the Championship, plus £35 million for the season back in the Premier League.
The Reds were over this threshold by £34.5 million over the three year period. They were deducted 6 points that put them into the relegation zone. In the end, they appealed this decision and the reports showed that as they had an "early plea" plus "excellent co-operation," they punishment would be reduced to 4 points only. This essentially saved them and they stayed up.
Should teams look at breaking the rules if they are not at risk of relegation?
If you look at a few teams in the Premier League this season. Lets take from 9th to 12th. Brighton, Fulham, Brentford and Crystal Palace. They are currently well above the relegation zone. For these 4 clubs to get relegated this season they would need a team that is currently in the relegation zone; for example, Ipswich Town or Leicester City; to have an out standing second half of the season, plus themselves to drop off massively. If this happened it would be thee biggest slump of the Premier League era.
What if one of these teams bought in two or three players to improve their starting 11? Yes, they would be breaking FFP or PSR but we've seen a few teams do it in the past. Even if they break the rules and get a 10 point deduction, all 4 of these teams would be still above the drop zone. In addition, as they are well established Premier League teams, with positive form in the season so far, they are probably going to generate more points that the bottom 3-5 teams anyway.
Once they have done this, got their points deduction, survived relegation, they are then in an amazing position for the next season. They are raking in the financial rewards of being in the Premier League and their squad has been improved. This is going to give them a great chance to challenge for those European places towards the top of the table.
This brings me nicely onto Nottingham Forest. Believe me, I am not a Forest fan, nor do I support a team that rivals them. I have no problem with the reds either way. I am just making an observation...
When you look at it. Nottingham Forest basically broke the rules, avoided relegation and are now absolutely reaping the rewards. If they stuck to the rules they would have either had to sell a couple of players or shouldn't have been allowed to purchase their last couple of signings. Their team and squad wouldn't be what it is now. Would they be in the position they are now?
The Garibaldis, just over half way through the season are keeping up with Arsenal, they've won more games than Arsenal and in third position in the league. This season 5 English Premier League teams qualify for the Champions League. At the moment of writing this, Newcastle are in sixth position, six points behind Forest. There are 16 games to go this season, so I don't want to speak to soon, yet it looks like Forest are in a very strong position to quality for the 2025/2026 Champions League.
Who would have thought that at the end of last season? If Forest fans really want to start dreaming, they are a 2 win swing away from being level at the top of the table with Liverpool. People might call that a stretch but this is football. Crazy things happen and remember Leicester City in 2015/2016. Not one person saw that coming. Even three quarters of the way through the season people were still writing them off and saying, their form will drop off any game now. Never happened and they won the league from finishing 17th the season before.
Now I must agree that a few Forest players are in the form of their lives. Chris Wood has bagged 13 goals this season, levelling his all time personal goal scoring record in the top league. With 16 games to go, this is obviously going to be his best return in the Premier League in his career. Morgan Gibbs-White and Callum Hudson-Odoi are both having very memorable seasons respectively and when you have players like Anthony Elanga or Jota Silva coming off the bench, the team is likely to have strong finished to their matches.
Just like any team that is pushing for the title, they have a solid base with Matz Sels in goal and a strong back 4. Wing backs Ola Aina and Neco Williams are having great seasons up and down the wings, helping in attack and assuring the solid centre back Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic. They have a complete team that works hard together and sort of reminds you of the spirit that the Leicester City title winning side had.
Whichever way the second half of the season goes, this will go down as one of Forest's best seasons since the Brian Clough days. All you have to decide is, would this be happening if they didn't break the financial rules?
To keep up to date with all things Across the Touchline, follow the blog on either:
Instagram @across_the_touchline or X (Twitter) @ATTouchline
So you never miss the next blog.
Blogs in the near future will be posted on Mondays and don't forget about Across the "Digital" Touchline blogs for all things Fantasy Premier League, posted on Fridays.
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