21 Mar 2025 22:37:37
As some of my fellow posters will remember, I have been saying for sometime that I now look at players as just commodities.
Well, this got me thinking and I am not an accountant but if a player total club cost is £50m and that cost is amortised over a five year period, so an £10m effective annual cost to the club but we then sell him for £30m up front payment, can we then say we have made £20m profit for that year and kick the can of any loss down the road?
I wouldn't normally think of this sort of thing but it is an international break.
22 Mar 2025 13:19:45
Mostly correct tom, but the unpaid amortisation is subtracted from the sale value. If that player is in the 4th year of a 5 year deal, and sells for 30m, the profit on the transfer is 20m (subtracting the remaining 10m)
22 Mar 2025 14:04:37
Standard, thanks for the info. I was assuming that you only take the years played as amortisation years and then had the opportunity to just carry/ kick the loss down the road.
22 Mar 2025 18:30:06
Amortisation, PSR, VAR. Whatever happened to the beautiful game!
23 Mar 2025 17:44:23
I do think it's a silly system. It's why it's more beneficial to sell gallagher for 40m and just buy 3 random players for 50m hoping one of them will work out. Yes it works through FFP but it just costs the club more and more money.
23 Mar 2025 18:11:35
I’m certainly not a fan of FFP or PSR. I am cantankerous old git, so I sent my alternative suggestion to the governing bodies.
I have far too much time on my hands but I like to look for alternatives/ solutions rather than dwell on problems.
24 Mar 2025 10:16:46
Interesting topic to have raised TOm and thanks for explining it Standard. But yes one can get a bit worried when the baeutiful game reduced to amortisation calculations by club accountants!