It is difficult to know the motives behind the change of Financial Fair Play. The restrictions that, let’s face it, have failed to stop the already dominant hyper clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester City from continuing to grow.
Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had hoped that FFP would restrict these sides enabling his then Arsenal, famed for its lack of willingness to invest heavily in the market, to compete better. Yet this never came to be. So much so that in 2020 Wenger changed his tune drastically and called for FFP to be reformed to allow more investment.
“I am in favour of measures that reinforce checks around club management, over measures that restrict and limit,” Wenger told L’Equipe via the Evening Standard. “We should value quality management and encourage it."
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“And I am in favour of opening things up to more investment, which FFP does not allow for. The clubs that dominate Europe today are those that were built and made investments during an era where FFP did not exist. FFP prevents emerging clubs who want to invest from doing so. That is not normal.
“These rules have fixed a hierarchy. The big historical clubs are bigger and bigger and, obviously, they are all fighting for FFP rules to be scrupulously applied to the others so that competitors can’t come through."
It now seems that Wenger is getting his wish. As first reported by the New York Times, a cap on team spending to the amount of 70% of a club’s revenue. This will not be done immediately but a 90% cap introduced before seeing it fall to the aforementioned figure.
For Arsenal, the club would not be heavily impacted due to their drastic overhaul of the club’s wage bill. Whilst Deloitte reported that Arsenal’s wage ratio was 75%, not including amortisation, the departure of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be a huge boost.
Alexandre Lacazette, Mohamed Elneny and Eddie Nketiah see their deals expire at the end of the season. There are plenty more players whose futures remain uncertain also. Bernd Leno, Hector Bellerin, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Pablo Mari, Alex Runarsson and Reiss Nelson could all go.
Of course, with the gradual introduction of the cap, even more players could move on before the full 70% restrictions come into effect. Yet, it is worth bearing in mind that should Arsenal sign anyone, their wages would need to be taken into account.
One way around this will be to increase revenue by qualifying for the Champions League. Arsenal sit in the driving seat in the race for the top four, and the additional revenue from playing in UEFA’s elite competition would certainly be of great benefit.
Any new commercial deals the club are able to agree on in that time would also help lessen the burden on the recruitment and sales division of the side. With new contracts for Mikel Arteta and Bukayo Saka expected to be sorted in the summer, football.london understands, costs will be going up in a number of areas.
Therefore, any early wins the club can achieve to increase revenue will be very welcome. Only increasing the pressure on the team to finish in the top four this season.
