Dear FR Users:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature/\_/id/1151697/marcotti:-trying-to-understand-financial-fair-play-?cc=5901

I have come across the article above today. It is written by the
respected journalist, Gab Marcotti. In it, he tries to simplify some of
the likely answers to FAQs about FFP. 

I must say that reading it has not left me with any more faith in FFP.
From the little that I understand about FFP it seems that clubs will
have multiple avenues of maneuvering around any significant punishments
that UEFA might use to threaten them. 

That said, I must admit that the legal nuances of FFP are beyond the
scope of my education and I am far from versed in sport law. I wish I
could have a more direct conversation with someone who did. I know it's
unlikely, but if anyone on FR is more knowledgeable about the details of
FFP or industrial law I request that you enlighten the rest of us with
your views on the matter.  I would like to learn more about this topic
as it has the potential to change the landscape of football as we know
it.

this might help you in the way it helped me understand something :

1. http://tinyurl.com/8hwblu2

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Financial_Fair_Play_Regulations

1. http://goo.gl/NGev1

Really interesting argument,thumbs up.
 
To put it simple,basically FFP means that a football club can't spend more than the income it gets,only from the business related to the club itself,yearly.
for example: if F.C. Pippo gets 100 millions € from sponsors,players sales,TV and merchandising..they can only use those 100 millions € to pay players,staff,managers..and buy new players. So it means that if F.C. Pippo spent 80 millions € to pay players,staff and managers,they will only have 20 millions to spend for buying new players. Clubs can make a debt of 45/50 millions € max,which will go down to 30 millions within 2018. A really important point is that: even if a club has a rich owner..this owner cannot recapitalize and fund the team with his own money. Again: the money that a club will have will be only the one it gets from its football business alone. The clubs will have to be in balance starting from 2013 and the rule is that they need to have a even/positive balance since at least 2 years over the previous 3 years to have acces to european cups. So it means that to acces the CL,PSG needs to have 2 years of balance between 2010/2011--2013/2014. It's known that PSG and M.City have more that 200 millions of debt,which is not possible to recover within 2013/14.. infact all the people are wondering why they keep spending like crazy douches. Paolo Ciabattini (football business expert) said that for example,PSG and M.City know that they can't recover,so they are pushing it all now so they can try to win at least an important european competition and then in 2015 they will be left out of europe. Looking at the clubs balances in this moment the teams which would not have access to european competitons would be: Real,PSG,M.City,M.United,Barca,Inter,Chelsea,Liverpool,Anzhi,Malaga and Valencia. ACMilan was also in the black list,but now i think a lot of people will understand why they sold Ibra and Thiago ;)
Teams which are already currently out are: Besiktas, Paok, Aek Athens and Glasgow Rangers.
Actually there is no way to avoid the rules. The only way is to boost the business around the club,like Barca is trying to do.
Soo,if those teams don't do nothing in the next 2 years..we gonna see big changes in CL and EL.

Some teams are saying that FFP favours only a few teams because there is only a few teams that actually turn a profit (arsenal, manU) the the rest with rich owners (chelsea, manC) can't invest money. I think it's great that they will finally start to regulate transfers. There should be a spending limit based on how much the club makes, number of club members, wage bill, recent success, and debt. 

We Valencia will have it better if FFP was a serious deal which it seams not to be

Knibis we also need to have fair tv rights. That would even the league out a lot more. 

Thanks @shpalman & @naman for your contributions.
I must say that despite the vehement reassurances of both Platini and UEFA, I have absolutely no faith that FFP will accomplish what most people believe it is set out to do. It just seems to me that I keep coming across too many "but's, if's, and although's" for me to feel that these regulations are water-tight. I HOPE I am wrong but I just don't see it.

The biggest problem I see is that UEFA has to walk a very tight rope. Many of the articles argue that Platini, and indeed UEFA have put their balls on the line here. If they do not enforce it, or come across as impotent, then #1- their reputations will have suffered a serious blow and more importantly, #2 - those clubs that are trying hard to follow FFP (e.g. Bayern, Dortmund, Arsenal, and now United & Liverpool) will have a vote of no confidence and abandon ship. This will mean the end of FFP and possibly of Platini's future.
On the other hand, if they follow through and impose singificant punishments on those who are blatantly non-compliant (viz. Real, Barca, PSG, City, Chelsea, Anzhi, & now Zenit) then they risk the biggest fear of all... a break away from UEFA by the richest clubs to form an independent super-league. This would be a disaster of apocalyptic proportions. UEFA would never allow it to happen because these teams make up it's biggest cash-cow, the Champions League. Moreover, a clusterfuck of this proportion would effectively end the career of every UEFA executive.
In short, I just don't see how they can effectively enforce the rules & keep the law-followers happy without risking their own demise. For this reason alone, I fear FFP is doomed to failure.

P.S. Interesting fact:
Apparently, Michel Platini's son, Laurent Platini, works as a lawyer for PSG's Qatari owners. Could this possibly be a conflict of interest maybe?

@footaholic
i completely agree with you,so strange that UEFA executives are pushing for something that basically would kill UEFA's business itself,if things stays like this. like you,i am afraid that FFP will only be a kind of "elite axe" and a concrete excuse for bigger teams to form an elite league,which is not totally an out-of-reality thing..in italy for example do you know how many times big teams pushed for a kind of elite Serie A which would include only the major clubs? 

Another interesting fact: Alexander Dyukov,Zenit's president,is also Gazprom Neft CEO..and Gazprom is one of the biggest UEFA's sponsors..nuff said.

also,i found this article about FFP exploitation: 
<http://www.sabotagetimes.com/football-sport/chelseas-commercially-confidential-contract-why-financial-fair-play-wont-work/> 

and a fair exhaustive guide on FFP,really well done: 
<http://www.financialfairplay.co.uk/> 

platini is such an asshole coming from a cheating club called juve. but I don't give a shit; money can do anything in the capitalistic society. 

@footaholic and shpalman

Intresting to read Hopfully they'll go through with it i hate to see clubs overspending then what they earn only to be left in limbo (rangers) however i am surprised to see fulham/everton against the recent vote on spending limits in the barclays premier league.

@shpalman: I got one better... Alisher Usmanov, Arsenal's much maligned minority shareholder (owns ~29%) is "the is chairman of Gazprominvestholdings, the investment holding subsidiary of Russia's state-owned gas company Gazprom, where his role is to manage what Gazprom calls its "most difficult and sensitive financial transactions." He has many "unofficial ties" with both Gazprom executives and Putin.

i hope tottenham,valencia n arsenal win titles after this rule