FFP

[eamonn]

We must be the most miserable set of trophy-winning, Champions League-qualified fans in Europe.

I'm happy. I'm just fucked off as well.

Was that the first draft of Ashes To Ashes?

[Smithy]

We must be the most miserable set of trophy-winning, Champions League-qualified fans in Europe.

I'm happy. I'm just fucked off as well.

Precisely this. I have said many times that a rebuild is necessary given the age of the squad, and also that I hoped that process started this summer, I just hoped it would be slightly more peripheral figures going first, rather than players who definitely make our best 11.

That said, I think if a rebuild is necessary, and we're looking to bring in players who can improve us, then doing so with a Champions League campaign AHEAD of us, is definitely the time to do it.  I suspect the players we can recruit this summer will be of a higher quality than we can get next summer if we don't finish in the Champions League places again.

I've no idea what a sale of Youri and Lucas do for our ability to buy this summer, given the restrictions we're under, but if it means there is less pressure to sell Rogers, then that has to be a good thing.

In Unai we trust...

[Percy McCarthy]

I found this an interesting read, from one of our “friends” in the north.

“A few people asked: "OK, so how DO Newcastle or Villa close the gap?" Fair question. Let's actually map it out — every revenue lever, what it costs, and how long it takes.

THE GAP ITSELF
Newcastle's latest accounts: ~£335m total revenue. The elite English clubs (Liverpool, City, United, Arsenal) sit around £650–750m. So the target is roughly DOUBLING revenue — an extra £350m a year — while the elite keep growing 5–10% annually. You're not chasing a fixed target. You're chasing a moving one.

LEVER 1: MATCHDAY 🏟️
Newcastle earn ~£50m a season at a sold-out St James' Park. Spurs make well over £100m from their new stadium. So you build. Options on the table: expand SJP (~60k) or a new ~65–70k stadium next door.

Cost: £1.2bn minimum, possibly far more. Timeline: a decision hasn't even been made yet, and construction alone is 6–7 years — realistically you're playing in it around 2031/32. Villa are ahead here: North Stand closed next season, 50k+ capacity from 2027/28. But even a finished stadium only adds £40–70m a year. Necessary. Nowhere near sufficient.

And remember: stadium debt or owner funding doesn't count against SCR — but the decade of waiting does. The elite already banked this upgrade years ago.

LEVER 2: COMMERCIAL 🤝
This is where the real gap lives. Newcastle's commercial income: ~£120m (and growing fast — up 44% last year). The elite: £300–400m+. Real Madrid make almost £500m from commercial ALONE.

Here's the brutal part: global sponsors pay for global audiences, and global audiences are built by 10–15 years of CONSISTENT Champions League football and trophies. City needed over a decade of sustained success (and, ahem, aggressive sponsorship valuations) to build their commercial machine. There is no shortcut — the shortcut (owner-linked deals) is exactly what fair market value rules exist to block.

Realistic best case: 10%+ compound commercial growth every single year for a decade. One bad cycle — a relegation scare, missing Europe for two seasons — and the compounding resets.

LEVER 3: BROADCAST 📺
Domestic TV money is largely equal — that's the one genuinely fair mechanism. The variable is Europe: a deep CL run is worth £80–100m+. But you need it EVERY season, because commercial partners price on consistency, not one-off runs. Which brings us to the trap…

THE CATCH-22 🔒
To qualify for the CL every year, you need a squad that costs elite money. But SCR caps your spend at 85% of revenue you don't have yet — and 70% under UEFA rules the moment you DO qualify. You need the revenue to build the squad, and the squad to build the revenue. The rules make you climb a ladder while standing on your own hands.

THE HONEST TIMELINE ⏳
Stack it all up — stadium delivered by ~2032, CL football in 8+ of the next 10 seasons, commercial compounding without a single stumble — and the realistic answer is 10–15 YEARS of near-flawless execution just to reach where the elite are TODAY. Except they won't be there anymore. They'll have spent 15 years growing from a bigger base, under rules that protect their head start.

That's not a glass ceiling. That's a glass ceiling that rises every time you jump.

The elite didn't build their empires under these rules. They built them first — then voted for the rules.

The gap isn't just spending power — it's commercial infrastructure. Liverpool's commercial arm alone generates ~£310m+. That's roughly TRIPLE Villa's (~£91m) and nearly triple Newcastle's (~£120m). Liverpool's sponsorship department out-earns Villa's entire football club.

So let's break down exactly what Liverpool sells that Villa and Newcastle don't (or can't yet) — and the playbook for closing it. Every single one of these is legitimate, arm's-length, and UEFA-compliant. 🧵👇

WHAT LIVERPOOL'S COMMERCIAL STACK LOOKS LIKE 🔴
▪️ Kit manufacturer: elite-tier deal (their new Adidas contract is among the biggest in world football)
▪️ Front-of-shirt: Standard Chartered, ~£50m/yr tier
▪️ Sleeve sponsor: separate deal, separate revenue
▪️ Training kit sponsor: AXA — sold SEPARATELY from the matchday shirt
▪️ Training ground naming rights: the AXA Training Centre — yes, even the training ground is monetised
▪️ 20+ official category partners: airline, banking, beer, tyres, spirits — sliced by category AND by region (an 'official banking partner' in Asia, another in Africa)
▪️ Non-matchday Anfield: Taylor Swift, Pink, stadium tours, museum — concerts alone are worth millions per summer, and Deloitte specifically credited non-matchday events for Liverpool's latest commercial growth
▪️ Global retail + pre-season tours in the US/Asia

Every brick of that stack is a revenue line Villa and Newcastle either don't have or sell at a fraction of the price.

THE PLAYBOOK FOR THE CHALLENGERS 🛠️

1️⃣ Stadium naming rights. The untouched goldmine. Nobody's renaming St James' Park — but a new-build stadium comes with naming rights from day one (worth £15–30m/yr at the top end), and hybrid models ("presented by") exist for heritage grounds. Villa Park post-expansion becomes far more sellable inventory too.

2️⃣ Training ground + training kit. If AXA pays Liverpool for both, Bodymoor Heath and Newcastle's training base are sitting there unsold. This is found money — zero fan backlash, pure incremental revenue.

3️⃣ Category partners at scale. Villa and Newcastle have a handful of partners. The elite have 20–30, regionalised. You don't need one £50m sponsor — you need fifteen £2–5m ones. That's a sales infrastructure problem, not a brand problem.

4️⃣ Sweat the stadium 365 days a year. Concerts, boxing, conferences, tours, museums. Newcastle's STACK fan zone helped drive commercial up 44% in one year — proof the model works. A redeveloped Villa Park hosting Euro 2028 is a shop window for exactly this.

5️⃣ In-house retail + content. Newcastle brought retail in-house and it showed up immediately in the accounts. Own your merch margin, own your media (documentaries, YouTube, club channels), own your fan data.

THE COMPLIANCE BIT — AND WHY IT MATTERS ⚖️
Here's the constraint that makes this hard: UEFA assesses every sponsorship at FAIR MARKET VALUE. Any deal with a company linked to your ownership gets independently benchmarked — and written DOWN to market rate if it's inflated. So there's no shortcut through owner-connected money. Every pound of this growth has to come from independent brands paying market rates because the club has genuinely earned the audience.

Which is exactly the trap from Part 2: brands pay market rates for global reach, and global reach is built by consistent Champions League football… which requires spending the rules don't yet allow.

The playbook is real. The inventory is real. But Liverpool spent 30 years building the shop while the rules now time-limit everyone else's opening hours.”