Everton have beaten the elitist FFP trap

It is certainly good news that Everton is benefitting now, and the synchronicity of this, Moshiri and the professionalism, vision, ambition and energy that has been introduced will hopefully bear fruit. There has been a clear step up in approach this window, and hopefully this momentum will continue to build.

It will of course take time to achieve I suspect, maybe a bit longer than many would like, given that we have a lot of improving to do, while a lot of the top six tend to bring in comparatively few, but very high profile and expensive players each season. We're not at that stage yet, maybe next season?

The really pleasing aspect though is the feeling of getting in amongst them and actually competing on a playing field that , while not yet quite level, has less of a gradient. It is often the tendency of the 'haves' to protect themselves against the 'have-nots' or the 'have less'.

Our lovable neighbours successfully claimed almost £100m in allowable expenses for the failed Stanley Park stadium move – even though a brick was never laid.

The idea was sort of right, but the execution became a loophole bonanza for legal and accounting firms. Ironically the model adopted by Football League clubs seems to be working – for now – although wage creep is seeing £40k+ / week salaries there as well.

It was a "Catch-22" situation. The football world will be lot a more interesting with it not being a factor. I think you will see a lot more clubs being sold to very wealthy men, because they will see the way clear to profit from their investment... no restrictions on how much they can spend.

Everton can spend all of the Lukaku money and extra sponsorship (£15 million?) on player costs (I assume that means wages and capital spend) so crucially we can push well beyond the £4 million wages increase allowed under FFP.

We are NOT allowed to use TV revenue for wage increases. Here's a thought – TV increases go on capital spend, Lukaku money (and others) goes on wages. We can then maintain that the following year using TV money – I think!

Selling players is funding our re-emergence as a CL challenging power rather than the demise of FFP.

nb: If we are able to increase wages spends to £200 million (current spend £105 million so not likely but we have 3 years to do this) we will be on a par with LFC, well above Spurs last season (though of course they will also increase spending) and truly part of the top group of clubs for the first time since... the early 1990s?

This is of course all a nonsense specifically in the Premier League. The huge increases in TV money allow us to spend on everything except wages?? The idea was to allow spending on infrastructure but do they not think this principle is doomed from the start?

http://www.financialfairplay.co.uk/financial-fair-play-explained.php

Want to know the utter lunacy of the loan system? The longest serving professional player at Chelsea is a goalkeeper called Matej Delac, who signed for the club in September 2009.

Delac has played a total of 154 games across nine seasons for Inter Zapresic, Vitesse, Dynamo Ceske Budejovice, Vitoria de Guimaraes, Vojvodina, Sarajevo, Arles-Avignon and Excel Mouscron. He has never played for Chelsea.

I've never even heard of this guy and he's been at Chelsea for 8 years!!

The FFP merely requires clubs to be profitable. The real restriction comes from the Premier League Rules (Short Term Stability rules) which cap increases of wages to £4m per year, but there is an exemption for profits on player sales and increases in commercial revenue (it being designed merely to stop the increases in TV money from being blown on wages as opposed to other forms of revenue).

As you say the restriction is only on wages – not on transfer fees – but it's the totals that count rather than saying one particular stream of cash was used for one particular usage. You end up with a formula based on the increases in the various bits of revenue and then this gives you a cap by which you can increase wages over the baseline for that season. The baseline only goes up £4m per year and you have to re-do the calculation each season.

Anyway, the gains from players sales (after depreciation) are so enormous we don't need to worry about these rules, at least for now, and in particular once we have the new stadium our commercial revenue should significantly increase and this will all be available for wages.

As to the principles, it doesn't really stack up to me but I do see the Premier League rules as an attempt to prevent all the increases in TV money disappearing in wage inflation and not benefiting the clubs at all (which is what has happened over the last 20 years). It should lead to better investment in infrastructure, academies, post retirement care etc and community involvement by Premier League clubs and football clubs making a profit and paying some tax.

Although this article in the Mail is highly confusing and inarticulate it is very positive and sending the message that we are back and breaking the glass ceiling is exactly the message we need the mainstream media to hear and repeat. It's definitely seeping through now.

Everton haven't beaten anything. We've to date operated well within the rules. In fact, most clubs operate within the rules as far as I know? Have UEFA been handing out fines left right and centre for non-compliance?

The biggest issue for most clubs is they are simply not big enough or have trading profits large enough to grow their brand.

It is as was forever thus, the bigger teams are big for a reason. Perhaps Chelsea and Man City managed to nip in there pre-regulation. but it's the same as it's always been.

What are you complaining about exactly?

For all the thousands and thousands of posts on this site and others that talk about a media bias and lack of respect that Everton gets, this article basically talks about Everton being back to one of the top clubs in England. The article talks about Everton – instead of being on the outside looking in – they are now a club competing at the top again.

So, what's the problem?

It's a nonsense article – regardless of which clubs it is positive about.

We've spent as much as we've sold but the article implies that now without FFP we are spending money all over the place to get back to the top. We are breaking even at the moment. (We will spend more of course to replace Lukaku and strengthen other areas.)

Also, a comment like "They have designs on being the next Tottenham" doesn't sit well with me. We have designs on being runners-up? Oh goodie!

What most annoyed me though was that I was reading this when I should have been asleep!

You wouldn't be happy with us finishing 2nd? Seriously, this would be huge out-performance.

Being the next Spurs is a good start, I suppose, but being the next Man Utd (Fergie era) is where we all want to be.

Being the next Spurs is a good start, I suppose, but being the next Man Utd (Fergie era) is where we all want to be.

The new stadium should be a real game changer for us in the coming years.

Neymar to PSG is the pinnacle of beating FFP. It will also have a massive impact on the price of all other players. If it goes through, the average player will now cost £30m and Coutinho is about to go for a ridiculous price.