FFP

[Percy McCarthy]

What we’re up against (I’m only looking up):

Revenue (€) Deloitte 2025 survey:

Real Madrid 1.161m
Barcelona 974.8m
Bayern 869.6m
PSG 837m
Liverpool 836.1m
Man City 829.3m
Arsenal 821.7m
Man Utd 783.1m
Spurs 672.6m
Chelsea 584.1m
Inter 537.5m
Dortmund 531.3m
Atletico 454.5m
Villa 450.2m

[TelfordVilla]

The constant push for increased revenue is why we have to partner with disreputable fos sponsors like the current lot, to counter balance  the more appealing loss with acorns hospice.

[Percy McCarthy]

The constant push for increased revenue is why we have to partner with disreputable fos sponsors like the current lot, to counter balance  the more appealing loss with acorns hospice.

Yes, but success would mean we could eventually rise above that.

[Ozzjim]

There is also the global brand appeal element that we need to grow. I always thought Spurs and United were clever with some of their signings being good players, but also having massive appeal to sell silly amounts of shirts across the globe.

[rooboy316]

What we’re up against (I’m only looking up):

Revenue (€) Deloitte 2025 survey:

Real Madrid 1.161m
Barcelona 974.8m
Bayern 869.6m
PSG 837m
Liverpool 836.1m
Man City 829.3m
Arsenal 821.7m
Man Utd 783.1m
Spurs 672.6m
Chelsea 584.1m
Inter 537.5m
Dortmund 531.3m
Atletico 454.5m
Villa 450.2m

I think this is the same survey you were looking up, but just the Premier League clubs (in GBP). In terms of direct league competition for us:

Premier League clubs’ revenue - 2024/25 (£m)
Liverpool 703m
Manchester City 697m
Arsenal 691m
Manchester United 667m
Tottenham 565m
Chelsea 491m
Aston Villa 370m
Newcastle 335m

While we've done well to increase the revenue significantly in the last few years, it'll take some going to break into the top 6. Especially given the top 6 will continue growing, compounding their advantage and making it harder for us to bridge the gap from a lower base.

Highlights the incredible job Unai and the playing side are doing, attaining league positions vs spending power.

[john2710]

Over the next 3 seasons, Chelsea & Spurs are catchable. But it needs Emery to continue to defy the odds & we may need to be patient.

Maybe Chelsea will eventually come unstuck financially & Man City might get a punishment matching the level of their cheating.

[Ozzjim]

I don't think reaching the top 6 should be the aim, I think getting to the £500m mark should. At that point there is enough to be able to spend £350m per season on wages and transfers and stay clear of the SCR issues, provided you are smart with it. The fact Chelsea are looking at a second summer in a row flogging their reserves for more than £300m suggests their recruitment of younger players and planning their futures on loan etc really does pay off.

[Crown Hill]

Well we had the chance to slash Spurs revenue and didn’t take it!

[Percy McCarthy]

The Deloitte survey breaks things down into 3 revenue pillars: broadcasting, matchday and commercial.

We’re good on broadcasting and a fair way back on matchday and commercial.

What they miss out is player trading and academy, which at present are two of our biggest strengths.

So we’re doing well on 3 out of 5, and investing hundreds of millions in the other two, which is why I’m optimistic, but that last one has to continue. Reducing the downtime of Villa Park could make a huge difference.

[Virgil Caine]

Thank you Percy- is there anywhere in the public domain that gives the amount of debt carried by clubs. In my simple thinking this should be as much of a concern for FFP, as if clubs started to fail and could not adequately service their debts then suppliers, investors and staff etc may not get paid.

[Percy McCarthy]

There’s stuff on Google but the links I’ve followed don’t lay it out very well.

It’s a metric we’re always near the bottom of, which is obviously a good thing. Debt takes a chunk out of our rivals’ income but not out of ours. Needless to say, nobody is going to change the rules to suit the minority of debt-free clubs.

[Ozzjim]

What I don’t get, and would really value a proper breakdown of, is where we are now at with SCR, and what room we have. Percy in the Telegraph today has stated AFTER Rogers we still need to sell to buy anyone decently priced, which I just don’t get.

[Clive W]

Comment in DT and John Percy’s response

Villa can spend John, they've saved about £50m a year in wages (they were already at 71% of wages to revenue) and made a profit of £135m from player sales this summer (£45m over three years as per UEFA calculation), also stripping out £10m of amortisation per year. That's around £100m in one year if you include profits, wages and amortisation. They've spent £86m on two players but this only adds £17m of amortisation and around £10m in wages I would assume. There is serious headroom to go and buy 3-4 more £30-40m players (two wingers on left and right, a creative CM to replace Tielemans and a right back to replace Garcia in the squad) as well as bringing in Palhinha on loan and Estupinan at left back and still reporting a profit to UEFA.
May even be change to bring in an expensive loan too.

John Percy
Telegraph
21 min ago
Reply to Mr R J O Griffiths

Hi there, you are correct in that there is definitely money to spend and around the £30-40m mark is about right. ViIla have done some fantastic work to alleviate the pressure. However, I do think there may have to be another sale to fully comply with SCR, though. It will come down to the offer and age, and ultimately whether Emery sanctions it. Fwiw, I don't agree with any of it and the rules need to be changed/tweaked/amended.

[Percy McCarthy]

What I don’t get, and would really value a proper breakdown of, is where we are now at with SCR, and what room we have. Percy in the Telegraph today has stated AFTER Rogers we still need to sell to buy anyone decently priced, which I just don’t get.

I don’t think we’ll ever get it unless someone with access to the figures draws us a diagram.

We need to know stuff like the adjusted revenue base, the allowable add-backs, the three-year average of our transfer profit/loss (it’s got to be a profit), the fees minus amortised book values of the players we’ve sold, and so on and so on ad nauseum.

I’m interested, enthusiastic, and not stupid, but I haven’t got a clue. I’ll have to wait for Adam the CCO’s next video, and even then I’ll probably have to watch it at least three times (and take notes, which I draw the line at - I’m not that enthusiastic).

A little bit of light I can shed from reading and watching stuff about it is that our UEFA SCR is about 78% and we’ve got to get to below 70% to beat sanctions. That’s according to Adam the CCO and Swiss Ramble.

[Exeter 77]

It feels like even if we sold our entire squad and replaced them kids on £20k per year (not week) we would still have to sell to avoid SCR problems. I am beginning to wonder what the point in investing energy in football is.