09 Jul 2025 19:15:39
I'm starting to make sense of the UEFA ruling for those interested.
The Club may not register any new
player on its List A to UEFA club competitions, unless the List A Balance is positive.
The List A Balance is defined as the difference between the costs of outgoing
players ("Cost savings") and the costs of incoming players ("New costs") at any
applicable deadline for the Clubs submission of its List A. This measure
conditionally applies to the 2024/ 25, 2025/ 26 and/ or 2026/ 27 seasons.
This means that players registered on next seasons (A list) player list must not exceed the total costs of players listed on last seasons list A list.
The key points on the list are Purchase cost, length of contract, amortised cost, players wage and finally the total cost.
As an example Mudryk's total cost on last seasons list is purchase cost £69.8 million, length of contract 8.5 years, amortised cost £8.2 million, players wage £9.1 million, total cost £17.3 million.
The key is the total cost and that is the only figure UEFA are interested in so next season we already have Mudryk off the list at £17.3 million, we also have Jadon Sancho off the list at £15.8 million so plenty to play with straight away. All good. Now, on the flip side, as players get older they move from list B to list A so that means, as an example, Levi will now take a place on List A next season and not list B but as a homegrown his total cost will only be salary. It is actually fairly simple.
09 Jul 2025 20:45:13
RPD, I’m not having “fairly simple” but I’m not an accountant.
Anyway, thanks for explaining it. I will now sit in a darkened room and try to understand it.
Large JD and coke please!
09 Jul 2025 21:17:27
Well done if you've cracked this RPD. and what yiu have posted does seem to. make some kind of sense though alsona bit baffling still. eg no allowance for inflation? But perhaps that's allowed for by sales inflating as well as. purchases. quite an accounts dream!
10 Jul 2025 09:51:19
I hoped you enjoyed your JD and coke Tom. It really is quite simple and all about the registered players total cost. Another example is Noni if he gets sold to Aresnal. We paid £26 million for him and will likely sell him for £55 million, a nice profit but that doesn't come into the equation as such. The only figure that UEFA look at is the total cost of that player taking into account the factors I mentioned earlier so in Noni's case his total cost is £12.1 million per year. That will come off the A list player expenditure. It does help to explain why we have offered players long contracts (only 5 years now allowed for amortised costs) and lower wages as it keeps that total cost down. That total cost then needs to be within 70% of total revenue going forward, was 90% and 80% but the aim is 70%. This run in the CWC plus Champions league and a FOS sponsor will allow greater expense on players and maybe the odd "superstar" on "superstar wages"?
{Ed001's Note - this lengthy contract thing also means that you have to continue to pay for them for the long term, rather than getting it out of the way and having more space to buy later. It is false economy, just kicking the can down the road.}
10 Jul 2025 10:12:46
You are right ED01 and I'm pleased the maximum timeframe for amortised contracts is now 5 years.
{Ed001's Note - it is scary when clubs start trying to spread payments out like you were initially. It does seem like no one bothers to learn from history any more! One look at Peter Ridsdale's record at Leeds, Bradford and Plymouth, all 3 clubs left bankrupted (while he got a pay off totalling in the millions when he jumped ship just before all 3 went into admin!) in large part due to handing out lengthy contracts. It is such a big and unnecessary risk.}
10 Jul 2025 10:30:43
So true ED01 and I think that the restriction to 5 years was one of the better UEFA and FA decisions. That Ridsdale gambled with clubs and put them in terrible debt. If FFP and PSR etc stops that happening again then it is doing its job.
{Ed001's Note - that is what actually set in motion the move to bring in FFP in the Prem.}
10 Jul 2025 10:59:01
Interesting info RPD and Ed001 thanks for it.
{Ed001's Note - very welcome mate.}