QPR Fined World-Record £40m For Breaching FFP

[Stan]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/10/24/qpr-ordered-pay-world-record-40million-ffp-fine-losing-three/

Quote

 

Queens Park Rangers have been ordered to pay a world-record £40million fine after losing a three-year battle against being found guilty of breaching Financial Fair Play rules during their most recent promotion-winning campaign.

The Championship club’s claim that the English Football League’s FFP regulations were “unlawful” and that the fine levied on them was “disproportionate” was dismissed by an arbitration panel, with both parties informed of the decision last week.

QPR confirmed on Tuesday they would be appealing a verdict that also spelt bad news for Leicester City and Bournemouth, who the EFL is pursuing, too, for effectively cheating their way to promotion in 2013-14 and 2014-15, respectively.

Acknowledging it had taken “a long time” for the matter to be resolved, EFL chief executive Shaun Harvey said: “This decision vindicates the approach of the EFL board in defending this challenge. The board will continue to enforce our rules on clubs to protect the interests of those that do comply.”

QPR chief executive Lee Hoos added: “We are understandably disappointed with the decision and will be appealing.”

Rangers’ £40m fine is thought to be the largest ever issued in football and is potentially the biggest in sport after the £50m McLaren were docked over Formula One’s ‘Spygate’ scandal.

It is also more than double the amount Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain ended up paying for breaching Uefa’s FFP regulations three years ago.

The Premier League and the then Football League both followed European football’s governing body in introducing cost-control measures in a bid to prevent clubs going bust.

Rules came into force in the lower leagues in 2012 which permitted Championship teams to make annual losses of £8m, with any side exceeding this placed under a transfer embargo or - if promoted to the Premier League - issued with a fine.

Fines were measured on a sliding scale for losses between £8m and £18m, with anything in excess of that calculated on a strict pound for pound basis.

QPR were widely expected to report massive losses in 2013-14 following their relegation from the Premier League on the back of a £41.1m spending spree on the likes of Andrew Johnson, Julio Cesar, Samba Diakite, Robert Green, Stephane Mbia, Park Ji-Sung, Esteban Granero, Junior Hoilett, Jose Bosingwa, Ryan Nelsen, Christopher Samba, Loic Remy, Yun Suk-Young, Jermaine Jenas and Tal Ben Haim.

But, after winning that season’s Championship play-off final, they reported a loss of just £9.8m after then owner Tony Fernandes, now the club’s co-chairman, and other shareholders wrote off £60m in loans as an “exceptional item”.

The Football League refused to do the same when it came to assessing their compliance with FFP regulations, imposing a £40m fine.

With Fernandes having already stated QPR would fight any such punishment and Harvey warning failure to pay could see the club thrown out of the professional game, a three-year legal battle ensued which both sides ultimaltely agreed to be settled by arbitration.

To complicate matters, the league relaxed its FFP rules in November of that year and harmonised them with those of the Premier League amid criticisms they were too draconian.

Since then, Championship clubs have been permitted to lose £39m over a three-year period - even more if they have spent one or two of those years in the Premier League.

QPR tried to exploit that decision to argue the original regulations had not been fit for purpose but to no avail.

It was unclear last night whether the club would have to record any fine in their latest annual accounts - putting them in danger of failing FFP again this season - or would be allowed to exclude it.

The statement from Harvey did not bode well on that front, with the EFL chief saying: “The board understand the challenges that this decision could create for our valued member club and will work with them, as and when the matter formally concludes.”

Pending the outcome of any QPR appeal, the EFL is now free to enforce multi-million-pound fines on both Leicester and Bournemouth.

Leicester won the Championship in 2014, the launchpad for their fairy tale 2016 Premier League triumph.

They went up on the back of losses of £20.8m but proclaimed their accounts were in compliance with FFP rules.

Bournemouth, fined £7.6m last year after posting losses of £38.3m during their promotion-winning season, were relying on QPR winning their case to overturn that punishment.

 

 

[Dave]

The spending QPR did to get another chance in The Premier League was somewhat outrageous. How anybody thought Harry Redknapp had really turned a leaf and was building a sustainable long term project is beyond me. Sadly for him it's stuff like this and the decline of Pompey that people will remember more than his time at Tottenham.

I imagine there's some dry throats in the boardrooms at Leicester and Bournemouth after this news emerged too. 

Whilst we've played it pretty shoddy in the last couple of years were fortunate we initially had our head screwed on before surviving repeatedly turned it.

[Stan]

2 minutes ago, Aaroncpfc said:

The spending QPR did to get another chance in The Premier League was somewhat outrageous. How anybody thought Harry Redknapp had really turned a leaf and was building a sustainable long term project is beyond me. Sadly for him it's stuff like this and the decline of Pompey that people will remember more than his time at Tottenham.

I imagine there's some dry throats in the boardrooms at Leicester and Bournemouth after this news emerged too. 

Whilst we've played it pretty shoddy in the last couple of years were fortunate we initially had our head screwed on before surviving repeatedly turned it.

as cunty as this sounds, our owners are multi-billionaires and a multi-million pound fine won't harm us (extremely bad publicity and a big short-term hit, yes). In the grand scheme of things, points deductions or transfer embargoes for one or two transfer windows would be worse to be honest. 

[Dave]

Just now, Stan said:

as cunty as this sounds, our owners are multi-billionaires and a multi-million pound fine won't harm us (extremely bad publicity and a big short-term hit, yes). In the grand scheme of things, points deductions or transfer embargoes for one or two transfer windows would be worse to be honest. 

Wouldn't they wait for you to drop before imposing the fine? Kick a man in the balls whilst he's already falling.

[Stan]

Just now, Aaroncpfc said:

Wouldn't they wait for you to drop before imposing the fine? Kick a man in the balls whilst he's already falling.

probably. but if we never drop, they can never fine us if that's the case...

[Stan]

if we go down, I'll donate to the forum as well. What was Dan's bet?

[Lucas]

2 hours ago, Stan said:

QPR were widely expected to report massive losses in 2013-14 following their relegation from the Premier League on the back of a £41.1m spending spree on the likes of Andrew Johnson, Julio Cesar, Samba Diakite, Robert Green, Stephane Mbia, Park Ji-Sung, Esteban Granero, Junior Hoilett, Jose Bosingwa, Ryan Nelsen, Christopher Samba, Loic Remy, Yun Suk-Young, Jermaine Jenas and Tal Ben Haim

 

Fair play to QPR, that's pretty impressive to sign 15 Clowns and not one of them prove to be worthwhile. Talk about defying the law of averages.

[Dan+]

If we're being done there is surely no way the likes of Derby, Forest and Sheff Weds can get off with it.

[Rafa Beneathus]

38 minutes ago, Teso dos Bichos said:

$50 dollars for me or £50 for Dan 

i win if LCFC finishes bottom three or dan wins if LCFC finishes top ten. well the forum wins either way!

Could have saved bandwidth by saying that the forum won't be receiving any donations from you or Dan.

[Batard]

They can suck my fucking plums. What a ludicrous statement, declaring a £40m fine that could kill a club is a ‘vindication’. EFL FFP is a sham, it’s not representative of reality. 

[Danny]

Glad something's being done, ridiculous how they can just spend whatever they want to get promoted and not suffer any of the consequences.

Though as long as Leicester and Bournemouth are in the Premier League I can't imagine a fineness like this will hurt them that much.

[Honey Honey]

Should face a points deduction, a fine is a scam to line the EFL's pocket.

A fine doesn't just punish someone, it rewards someone who isn't entitled to a reward. That's wrong.

[Spike]

PSG's should be four billion then.

[Happy Blue]

Tell them to fuck off, we have left the EU and the FA control our clubs not these corrupt clowns  ...these clubs need to come and speak with us, FFP is illegal, our fine was overturned in court    ...have these clubs even spoke with  Jean-Louis Dupont? 

[Bluebird Hewitt]

7 hours ago, Lucas said:

Fair play to QPR, that's pretty impressive to sign 15 Clowns and not one of them prove to be worthwhile. Talk about defying the law of averages.

Hoilett's fine. 

[Dave]

8 hours ago, Lucas said:

Fair play to QPR, that's pretty impressive to sign 15 Clowns and not one of them prove to be worthwhile. Talk about defying the law of averages.

They must have been pissing themselves to have found someone to take Doyle, Mutch and McCarthy off them.

[Batard]

7 hours ago, Danny said:

Glad something's being done, ridiculous how they can just spend whatever they want to get promoted and not suffer any of the consequences.

Though as long as Leicester and Bournemouth are in the Premier League I can't imagine a fineness like this will hurt them that much.

That’s not really the case here though, it’s when the club were relegated they still had huge earners on the books. It means any club relegated from the Premier League, more specifically a club banking on Premier League money in every sense is fucked. 

Fernandes is the real culprit here, not the club. Everyone around QPR knew it was risky what he was doing but this outcome is hilariously bent. A points deduction, akin to going into administration is what’s needed here. Instead what will happen is the EFL are looking to profit from themselves, if QPR pay this fine they set a worrying precedent. Promoted clubs will have to be very very careful with what they spend. In effect it only maintains the status quo.

If QPR, as I would expect, go into administration, that’s a points deduction on top of a fine they can’t afford. If it were me; I’d wrap up the club and start again because none of this benefits anyone. It doesn’t address FFP, it just encourages teams that are spending vast amounts of money in the EFL to get promoted to do it more for the Premier League riches. 

[The Liquidator]

I hope they make this stick n hit QPR where it hurts. I remember around the time this happened reading an article where the writer said they completely disregarded the rule under the impression the championship would not be able to do anything as QPR would be in the PL by then and the riches they would get from being in the PL would cover anything that was thrown at them.

[Honey Honey]

As the article says the rules were created to protect clubs from going bust. A club who is in debt to its owner isn't at risk of going out of business.

Once QPR go bust because of the EFL ruling people will wake up to the reality that these rules aren't about protecting the clubs in the league, they're about protecting a desired brand image of the league. They're making QPR fans victims of this fantasy even though QPR aren't any good anyway. Wtf.

[Panna King]

[Inverted]

I agree with the sentiment of hammering clubs that have contributed to the current shambles in the championship, but you have to question the idea of enforcing financial security by imposing massive fines.

If the owner cares more about league position than his own pockets, then surely it makes more sense to deduct points than fine them? 

[Batard]

2 hours ago, Inverted said:

I agree with the sentiment of hammering clubs that have contributed to the current shambles in the championship, but you have to question the idea of enforcing financial security by imposing massive fines.

If the owner cares more about league position than his own pockets, then surely it makes more sense to deduct points than fine them? 

It’s worth remembering the owners, whilst financing the clubs, don’t own the debt from these spending sprees. Abramovich notably in the past and more recently Fernandes at QPR, recorded huge debt against their respective clubs. Now Chelsea had a plan to become self sufficient within a period of time, which they’ve seemingly achieved recently. The point is; in the Chelsea situation they’ve managed their debt but Abramovich wasn’t likely to leave anyhow.

In the case of QPR, if the owner leaves through FFP killing a club, the debt isn’t leaving with the owner. It’s staying with the club. FFP fails to recognize the negligence of owners. Make club ownership rules tougher, set financial criteria in terms of acceptable debt against a club, not the nonsense we have now. Make FFP about safeguarding clubs not raping them after poor ownership.