Football Thread 2017/18

[wev]

From what I understand it's different in La Liga anyway. I think a player has to buy out his contract from the club but he has to do that through La Liga and not directly with the club?

[Naysonymous]

7 minutes ago, wev said:

From what I understand it's different in La Liga anyway. I think a player has to buy out his contract from the club but he has to do that through La Liga and not directly with the club?

 

Spanish law gives anybody the right to buy out their contract afaik, this applies whether you work in a bank or are centre forward for Barcelona.  I remember a couple of years ago when Manchester United tried to activate Ander Herrera's buyout clause on deadline day and failed in their attempt then some details came out of it, apparently the player needs to buy out their own contract and problems can arise if a buying club (ie PSG) gift a leaving player (ie Neymar) £200m so he can trigger the clause because the Spanish Inland Revenue can view that as income for the player and therefore subject to income tax.  This doesn't appear to have happened with Neymar so maybe Barca just accepted the bid rather than go through the rigamarole of fighting this deal in the courts and losing anyway.  

[Liamness]

47 minutes ago, wev said:

From what I understand it's different in La Liga anyway. I think a player has to buy out his contract from the club but he has to do that through La Liga and not directly with the club?

 

I think La Liga would act as an intermediary usually, the assumption being that if someone's triggering such a clause it's probably a hostile manoeuvre, unlike a normal transfer which is negotiated and agreed between both parties. Doesn't mean they actually need to be involved, just that they ordinarily are.

 

If his lawyers turned up to Barcelona's offices and said "here's some money" it could've been that the funds were held in a escrow account or similar, and Neymar never had the money deposited in his account. It's unlikely anyone will kick up a fuss about this if so, as the issue previously was that this would've been treated as income (this is what blocked United's initial attempt to sign Herrera, as Nayson points out) but this is no longer the case. So there is no practical difference in where the funds come from. The transfer is legal, the only issue now is whether PSG's can fund it while satisfying UEFA's rules.

[Adrock]

Uefa's FFP is impotent anyway isn't it? After Man City and PSG were let off a few years back.

[Plissken]

Both got hit with a big fine (€49m in City's case) transfer restrictions and a squad limit which included homegrown players.

 

Part of the fine was refunded after two years compliance with FFP.

 

It is a long way from perfect, but they weren't let off.

[Sirloin]

I love team preview season in the papers as they all mention that Leicester won the league two years ago and I sit there cackling away to myself as it's still bizarre.

[Chooch]

This is fantastic from Mata:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/aug/04/juan-mata-transform-football-donate-salary

[Adrock]

2 hours ago, Plissken said:

Both got hit with a big fine (€49m in City's case) transfer restrictions and a squad limit which included homegrown players.

 

Part of the fine was refunded after two years compliance with FFP.

 

It is a long way from perfect, but they weren't let off.

 

Not just part of the fine, 40mil Euros returned.

 

FFP is toothless.

[McFly]

Refunding a fine? Thats just bizarre. I wish id get refunded all my speeding fines.

[Dudley]

Try driving backwards at 85mph.

[Plissken]

The fine was always based on good behaviour.

 

The transfer and squad restrictions were intended to hurt more.

[Adrock]

If you look at city's accomplishments after the FFP restrictions I'm pretty confident it'll show nothing much affected their ability to compete.

[McFly]

€515,000 after tax every week for Neymar 

 

So that must be over €1,000,000 a week before deductions?

 

There was a story about Neymar on 5Live where a presenter said they didnt like him. Apparently Scotland played Brazil in 2010 or thereabouts. A banana was found pitchside and Neymar said to the press Scotland fans were racists and he hates them. A German touriat came forward and said it was his banana and that he left it behind just by accident. Neymar refused to apologise and said he still hates the Tartan Army 

[Seanfl9]

8 hours ago, Chooch said:

This is fantastic from Mata:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/aug/04/juan-mata-transform-football-donate-salary

As a United fan, I already like the guy. Now I'm bisexual. 

[redbloodcell]

23 hours ago, Adrock said:

Uefa's FFP is impotent anyway isn't it? After Man City and PSG were let off a few years back.

 

17 hours ago, Adrock said:

 

Not just part of the fine, 40mil Euros returned.

 

FFP is toothless.

 

Inter weren't permitted to register a bunch of their players for Europe last season as they contravened FFP, it's hardly toothless. Teams pushing up what can be shown to be "market value" for sponsorship deals means that the likes of PSG can have money pumped into them and get around those rules, though. 

[Adrock]

In one post you've disagreed and agreed with me, the spate of Chinese ownership in Italy for example will mean they will circumvent the FFP regulations with inflated sponsorships.

 

As for Inter, they were stopped from registering 4 players for European competition. From 25 to 21. Before FFP Inter in 2 of the previous 4 seasons were not partaking in European competition and the other two reached the last 16. After FFP punishment, including the upcoming season, haven't been in Europe twice and went out at the group stages of the Europa League. They have been a team in decline for a good while.

 

I'd love to check the statistics but I haven't been able to find them. How many of the 21 players did Inter have starting in the games they played? Did they utilise all 21 in starting places?

[redbloodcell]

1 hour ago, Adrock said:

In one post you've disagreed and agreed with me, the spate of Chinese ownership in Italy for example will mean they will circumvent the FFP regulations with inflated sponsorships.

 

It's a deeper problem than just the Nouveau Riche clubs throwing money around though, it speaks to how the relentless pursuit of money is affecting the sport. 

[Adrock]

Oh I completely agree with that, in principle there is nothing wrong with an owner spending his own money to make the team more successful.

 

But at the same time it can have a really negative effect on the competition. The current FFP is a half way house and doesn't do enough to actually combat the issue. Either strengthen it or remove it.

[Plissken]

Burnley vs Hannover 96 abandoned at half time after the visiting supporters started ripping seats out and throwing them at the home fans.

[DukeOfEarlsfield]

Score goes from 2-0 to 1-1 thanks to video ref.

 

[Headache]

I really like how the crowd made waiting on the video replay part of the excitement of the game. Doesn't look like it damages the flow of a match and mistakes get corrected straight away. Brilliant.

[feltmonkey]

It was a bit of a dreadful decision not to award the penalty straight away, to be honest. 

 

This was the "nightmare" situation for those who oppose video refereeing in football - a breakaway goal disallowed because of an overturned decision at the other end - but it actually feels fine. If the breakaway goal had stood after such an obvious penalty wasn't given, then surely that's a huge injustice, much worse than the fact that the other team got a goal chalked off through no fault of the players who created and scored it. I welcome video replays for refs.

[Stig]

I think its great and have been a big supporter of bringing it in. Its worked perfectly fine here and the correct decision has been made. Imagine if the team who didnt get the penalty lost a final, League title or got relegated due to that decision. Reviewing the incident and awarding the correct decision is the right thing to do

[neoELITE]

If it isn't extended to the lower leagues and funded by the FA/EFL then it shouldn't happen. It needs to be at every pro level. How much is it likely to cost? They could put a levy on all transfers to fund it.

[Headache]

It should be in all leagues, but starting at the highest level gives it the best exposure and shows everyone how much fairer it is. I'm sure that will help drive its introduction in every other league better than any argument or example could.

[Baring]

That was great but was he relying on the VAR to make the decision once play had stopped? This could affect refs from making crucial decisions. 

 

Or was it triggered by a team and he would refer once the ball is dead?

[Plissken]

I think that it is when play stops.

[ckny]

3 hours ago, neoELITE said:

If it isn't extended to the lower leagues and funded by the FA/EFL then it shouldn't happen. It needs to be at every pro level. How much is it likely to cost? They could put a levy on all transfers to fund it.

 

Why? Goal line tech isn't in the lower leagues.

[Baring]

16 minutes ago, Plissken said:

I think that it is when play stops.

But who activates it as such. The aggrieved team or does the ref think he might have made a mistake and wants to double check? 

[Plissken]

The officials activate it, and I think that can be any of the officials.   I don't think that there is a mechanism for the players to request a review.  (However, I reckon there will be in very few seasons.)