FFP

[Stormin]

Ok, so I really am trying to carry on playing the game but this FFP business for lower league teams is not working at all. I need some answers! 

I am in the Jan transfer window in my 2nd season  with Exeter City, we got promoted last year from League 2 and are top of League 1 with about £3m in the bank after some good cup draws! 

I managed to sign some good free transfers/loans this season and am spending £51,000 of my £58,000 wage bill. I do understand that the FFP regs are based on a level of income or predicted one but is that set at the start of the season? Does it not adjust for the current one? Or is it based on our 8000 max attendance at our council owned ground? 

I'm having to sell off players and release people just to not have a transfer embargo. We are turning over a pretty good profit but the FFP limit is £40k per month in league 1! 

Anybody else having the same problems? 

And will it change much next year or do I have to somehow persuade the board to buy and increase capacity at our ground? (Which they have already refused to do)? 

At least if I could work out how and when the FFP is set or exactly what it uses in the game to set it's unworkable limits then I could carry on playing the game without 100 hours of wasted time! 

 

[JordanMilly]

FFP is based on the financial reports from the team submitted to the league. Leagues 1 and 2 use the SCMP rules, found here: https://www.efl.com/-more/governance/efl-rules--regulations/appendix-5---financial-fair-play-regulations/

As a League 1 team, you can only use 60% of your reported turnover for wages. The report for SCMP is done in June of preseason, and is notwithstanding that you were a League 2 club last season. It would seem, from your case, that this comes to approx £40,000 a week for wages.

If you're in a small stadium, and taking into account you were in League 2 last year, that likely explains the restrictive SCMP limit. From the league rules, it wouldn't be updated until the next season.

If it helps with planning player purchases and loans, players under 21 on a professional contract don't count towards the salary cap, so you could instead go for loaning some decent Premier League youth to keep some skill in your squad while keeping within the salary cap.

[Stormin]

Thanks for that...great info! Assuming I manage to somehow hang on for promotion to the Championship, do they have a different way of working it all out? Or will it all run about a year behind?  Seems pretty impossible to be competitive the higher you go under this system! The annoying thing is, we have about £1.8m in gate receipts, prize money and player sales but no way of reinvesting it and it's certainly made no difference to our FFP this season.

I am reading through the EFL link above but it's taking a while.

And yes, the Prem youth seems to be the way to go, maybe next year when I hopefully get in the Championship they might be more interested in signing! 

[JordanMilly]

Aye, the Championship calculate things differently, and for the most part you will be doing it a year behind (because you can only really report your income and expenses after you've received them/paid them out). The Championship rules are included in that link, they're the entire first several sections, and then it gets to League 1 - if you want to jump to the League 1 section, just Ctrl+F and type SCMP, it'll take you right to it.

[Stormin]

Thanks again, still not clear whether the good income we've had this season..end of Jan and we have already turnover of £8.5m compared with £5.9m for the whole of last season... whether all of that will translate into how much more of a salary increase? 

There is only a small section on clubs promoted from League 1. 

It would have been very helpful of FM to put some kind of guide to the FFP for each league and how it's calculated. I'm now trying to manage a club whilst also becoming an accountant!