Stoke City - £88m Loss

They can, it just depends on how they allocate that money.
If they are willing to put in £100 million as a gift for example they can, the rules are just so the club does not get saddled with the debt

 

Like banks in 2008 suddenly writing off everything they could to make massive losses while under government support to then re-emerge with a clean slate once brought back into private hands.

It really needs the EFL and regulating bodies to scrutinise these things, I don't trust any football club to regulate itself to break even year in year out.

 

Sadly, despite the FFP rules, there can't be many clubs that are solvent or even have a positive retained earnings figure.

 

And if they walk away having done that like Wigan?

 

Indeed, all FFP seems to have done is created a set of obstacles that if you’re clever or deceitful enough you can get round whilst the honest ones play by the rules are in essence often penalised.
Bit like taxes and Accountants

 

You look at our accounts and they are being propped up by a debt/equity swap. Our retained earnings in May 2017 were £3.26m. These accounts show as MINUS £631k. That's nearly a £4m loss over 3 years, probably largely taken up by them retaining more players to get back into the championship which panned out at first time of asking. The period doesn't cover the worst of the pandemic so with a much weakened transfer market and a weakened balance sheet, I'm a little nervous about what may follow this close season.

 

It's the 7500 or 8000 die hard's that fund our club. Whilst we have that core support we'll be alright. We might not do anything stonking but we'll have a club. That's the only thing I had against our ownership. They more or less admitted they weren't putting anything in last summer and it was down to how many ifollow memberships they sold.

 

And it's the one thing I admire them for.

You're happy for the owners to prop up the club till they have no money left and then the club go bust - most of the rest of us don't want them spending a fortune and to minimise any risk.

 

Thought lower leagues were salary caps not Owners cash injections?
My understanding is owners can gift monies but not loan

 

Has it changed recently then(last few years)?
Quick search brought this up which suggests they can
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....ws/how-financial-fair-play-rules-11361849.amp

 

The debt/equity swap came about from the deal to buy the club. Patrick had loans to the club of just over £6m at the time of the transaction. The value of the loan was paid to Oakwell Holdings from the new owners with the loan being replaced by equity in BFC.

Worth noting that half the cash on the balance sheet was used to repay BFC Investments. Or the equivalent of just under 25% of all the matchday revenue.

 

If you want to know how FFP restricts owners pumping money in to a club here's the link to the EFL rules:

EFL Official Website - Appendix 5 - Financial Fair Play Regulations

Now the fact I find it interesting probably speaks more about me.....

 

May I place on record my appreciation to Archerfield for all his posts on the accounts of our club and others? I find them extremely informative, interesting and easy to follow.
Thank you, mate.

 

Precisely, without that debt/equity swap, our balance sheet would be insolvent and the retained profitability left in the accounts from the 2016-17 firesale has been more than used up.

With a year of covid to account for, nominal net transfer income, dwindling cash reserves, and the MacDonald debacle to cater for, I'm more than a bit worried.

 

Reading

Derby

Cardiff

Bournemouth

Forest


Would be interested to see their accounts.

 

I’ll be honest, I tried reading in car whilst on a break and it lost me.
Could you summarise please(I’m assuming Gally was right).

oh and like others thank you for your posts on books.

 

Me too lol

We can dream pal