Gareth Bale

[Gibbo]

90 mil plus Coentrao seems to be what most are suggesting

[Fredo]

FFP eh ?

[Alex]

I know this tet a tet was last night but can we all chill out?

Its a bit tiresome going over the same ground over and over again.

[Tee]

FFP eh ?

Unfortunately its never going to be enforced properly. Only us and Arsenal seem naïve enough to think it will. The richest clubs will always find a way round it.

[Vermilion]

90 mil plus Coentrao seems to be what most are suggesting

I heard a week or more ago that Coentrao would end up at Spurs, and that the reason that Sequeira was stalling on signing for anyone was becasue he could yet end up at Madrid.

Before anyone asks, i have not an idea where i heard it, it was just one of the many snippits of info my mind took in..

[fah-q]

Kinda trumps my panic buy of The Meters vinyl today just because I hadn't taken anything home with me

You can't go wrong with the Meters though.

[G]

FFP eh ?

I read somewhere that they're already 100m in debt before this deal

[Alex]

Try €590m or €146

Check this out.

Real Madrid are €590m in debt so how do they get round Uefa finance rules?

At first, and maybe second, glance it would appear that a world record-busting move by Real Madrid for Gareth Bale is not exactly in line with the pledge by the Uefa president, Michel Platini, to put the brakes on the game's overheating finances.

Arsène Wenger, who has long made his distaste for spiralling wages and transfer fees plain, said it was "a joke" that Madrid would spend so much in the same season that FFP was introduced.

But a combination of the series of concessions negotiated by the biggest clubs through the European Club Association to Uefa's Financial Fair Play rules and Real Madrid's huge revenue‑generating potential mean the two things are not quite as contradictory as they might appear.

Much to the chagrin of its critics, who fear it will "lock in" the established order, the FFP break-even rules favour the biggest earning clubs. And of those, Real Madrid have consistently been the biggest for the past eight years.

The latest Deloitte Money League report calculated they had become the first to break the €500m annual revenue barrier, with their total of €512.6m an increase of 11% on last year. The Spanish TV rights model, with Real Madrid and Barcelona keeping the lion's share, in contrast to the more equitable division in England, and a concerted drive to exploit the brand abroad helped.

Since those figures were compiled, Real have signed a new, 30% more lucrative shirt sponsorship deal and started work on a stadium redevelopment scheme. As far as the FFP calculations are concerned, total transfer outlay is less important than you might think. Transfer fees can be amortised over the length of a player's contract, making wages the more important factor and perhaps explaining Real's keenness to move players on as well as bring them in. Gonzalo Higuain has gone to Napoli for £32m and various names have been mooted as potential part-exchange makeweights for Tottenham's Bale.

Real are well known for being keen to pay their transfer fees in instalments – hence why Tottenham are still owed money for Luka Modric and while Real's debt is often quoted as €590m and they remain under investigation by the European Commission over a land deal with the city council, that figure measures their entire liabilities.

Under the accounting measures employed by English clubs, the blogger Swiss Ramble worked out last year the figure would be €146m – less than Arsenal or Manchester United.

Under the FFP rules, clubs are allowed €45m leeway over the first two seasons and can also disregard deals signed before the rules were announced. Even if they fall foul, if they can show a positive "direction of travel" it will act as mitigation.

All of which means that Madrid, with their huge earning power, are a less startling example of football's refusal to bend to Platini's will than Manchester City, Paris St-Germain and Monaco.

[dww]

Unfortunately its never going to be enforced properly. Only us and Arsenal seem naïve enough to think it will. The richest clubs will always find a way round it.

Chelsea are also clearly working to the rulebook now. United too.

A few super rich clubs are testing the water but we have no idea what level of enforcement will happen but the landscape is not as one sided as you portray.

There also seems to be a lot of misunderstanding of what FFP means. It is not really supposed to take the advantages of the huge brand clubs away and is almost certain to reinforce them.

[Darkon]

You can't go wrong with the Meters though.

That's true

[G]

Try €590m or €146

Check this out.

Real Madrid are €590m in debt so how do they get round Uefa finance rules?

That's probably where the 100m came from. 146m less the 45m loss they are allowed.

[Fredo]

If the FFP rules were implemented, Real Madrid would be banned of European competitions for 100 years.

[Alex]

Would they? Did you read that article I posted? Explains away why they shouldn't be too worried by them.

[Fredo]

Nah, didn't read it mate. What's the gist of the article?

[Alex]