Controlling Finances???

Could anyone help me or direct me to a thread which will help me to understand the finances screen and how to control the clubs finances??

Thanks in advance

I will try to explain to the best of my abilities. The finance screen is a means to know if you are making money or losing money. And the breakdown of each item. You can check to see where are your revenues from, and where are your expenditures going towards. Depending on your club, it will differ from team to team.

In terms of controlling your club finances, you don't have much control over it to be honest. What you can do is to make more money and save more money.

All these basically boils down to wages, and probably transfers.

Bulk of the income will come from stadium ticket sales. Having a big stadium helps, if you stadium is alot smaller than the rest of the league, try to pack them out and pester your board for expansion or a new one. It will plunge you in debt (the loan needed to build the stadium) but after the attendance improves, so would your income. If your stadium isn't packing out. Then you would simply need to play better and win more. Winning games will get you more fans etc.

There is also possibility of getting commercial links via merchandizing when you get a affiliate club in countries like japan etc. But I am still not big enough to touch on that part.

Player wages.

The wage limit given to you by the board isn't a max limit as to how much you can spend without crippling your finances. Most of the time, even if you spend within it, you would be losing crazy amount of money. Maybe just like in real life, most of the chairman have no idea what the hell they are doing. Just scrimp and save to the best of your abilities.

Transfers

Just understand that they come from your club balance. So if you are already losing money, you might not want to spend on any players even though the board gave you a budget. Selling players will net your club cash but depending on which level you are playing, they might give so little cash that it is of no importance. Like in the L2-L1 Level. I can sell players for 300k which is considered very good. But I am losing like 40 to 100k a month so .. it only slows the bleeding, doesn't stop it. And, don't sign players on those long ridiculous installment plans because you are still gonna be paying for it years to come. But that is your personal preference.

Friendlies

The number 1 way to earn money in this game is friendlies. As a small team outside the top league. Playing pre season leagues against top league teams (or their reserves depending on how low you are) is the absolute best way to earn money. You can make enough money during preseason to last you through the entire season worth of bleeding. Other than pre season leagues, home friendlies against top league teams (or their reserves) works as well, just remember to check how much you are getting when you schedule them. If not, you can also play away friendlies against very small foreign teams. They will pay you to play them.

Cup Runs

Having successful cup runs can give your coffers a boost but it really depends alot on luck. For every win in the cup stages, you get some prize money. But I personally feel it is too little and 1 friendly is even more $$ than that. The big money comes when you face off against some really big clubs. They will sell out your stadium, and if you are lucky, TV coverage. The money from TV coverage is massive. Winning the cup has a pretty decent $$ but I like the coverage from the finals though.

I think you got it pretty much covered there Brose. If you are a big team the easiest way to keep a good balance is always try to sell for more than what you buy for in a season.

When I'm trying to sell youth players I don't need anymore or who probably won't be able to get a first team place later I try to go for as much money as possible, this is usually best done by agreeing on getting the money over 48 months, and of course get the 50% of the next transfer clause in there aswell. This is of course only possible if you have complete control over the talent coming through in your country. In my current game I've picked up 90% of the good spanish youth prospects, so with £10-20m it's possible to get most of that talent, and you can sell the ones you don't need for a great profit later on.

As Brose said, if you are a smaller club, the pre-season friendlies is the way to go. get as many friendly leagues as you can and then do 1 or 2 games against smaller teams to get the morale up before the league starts.

Thanks a lot appreciated