I have just delved into another message board, a poster on there has stated that FFP has been suspended for this season due to Covid. Has anyone else heard this? Can't see it being true but who knows.
It came up as it was suggested that, although Villa were the 2nd highest spenders in Europe last season, they are on the verge of signing Watkins

Here you go......

[Link]

A stairway to Heaven and a Highway to Hell give some indication of expected traffic numbers

I think they were considering relaxing FFP regulations even before the s*** really hit the fan, so it wouldn't surprise me. Wasn't something announced a couple of months back about a 12 month suspension of it.

edit: I should've checked the above link rather than first post ha

Edited by BlueJay (19 Aug 2020 9.53am)

They should simply the rules after all FFP is supposed to be about stopping clubs going bankrupt trying to buy success.

If your club has a rich owner why shouldn't they be allowed to pump in his own money?

I would go for something like this:

1. Each club must lodge a bond worth £nn with the league. In the event of the club going bust the league can draw on this bond to pay creditors. The bond would be issued by a bank on behalf of the club so will appear on their books as an outstanding debt. Rather like a mortgage this would impact on how much more money a club could borrow.

2. All clubs must produce annual accounts signed off by auditors and by a date before the start of the season. Failure to do that will result in sever penalties.

3. Wages and taxes must be paid on time subject to penalties.

4. Operating losses must not exceed a certain percentage however it is okay for the owners to pump money into the club to reduce these if they want to.

5. Players wages would no longer be guaranteed to be paid 100% if the club fails, they are just another creditor.

Players agents would therefore be more interested in the financial health of a club. Clubs that were a bit dodgy would find trouble signing players and so would have to clean up their act.

This is all pretty basic but should allows owners to fund their clubs whilst protecting fans from the dodgy ones.

One more point

Just seen that Villa are allegedly planning a bid for Eduoard, Watkins and Benrahma. If true and it’s a big IF they really are sticking 2 fingers up to ffp