Financial Fair Play (FFP) was established by UEFA to make sure that football clubs were not spending more than they earned and, in doing so, prevent them from falling into financial troubles which may endanger their long-term survival – and, in their words, "improve the overall financial health of European football".
Unfortunately, that isn't what it accomplished. In order to grow, a company must invest, regardless of the industry. Some industries require more investment than others. Football is highly capital intensive. Teams like PSG, Chelsea, and Man City made it big by investing for several years at deficits (Amazon did this, and Netflix is doing this). And this is ok, as long as the owners are willing to put in the equity, and there is an eventual point when the team can be self-sustained. FFP ended this. Why? Because they limited losses, even if you make up the loss with equity investment. You should never cap equity investment. Milan is the perfect example. They were completely recapitalized, and used new equity to buy players, and they're out of the Europa league.
Then you have big teams that break the rules, that don't even need to spend in deficit anymore, and they don't even get punished. It's a stupid system that will not stop Parma's from occurring. Because fact is, that if you're a perennial European contender (ie: will actually be affected by the rules) or you're a team that has growth prospects and are investing in big players, you can probably sell your players if you end up in financial distress or your owners stop supporting you. You probably also have significant brand value. And worse? Their punishment if the team is actually in distress just makes things 10x worse by cutting out European competition revenue, which is crucial for any non-english team.
FFP is an idiot concept that prevents investment. It doesn't stop bankruptcies like Parma. It stops the elite from being challenged. And when the elite break the rules (as long as they have enough clout like PSG), they won't get punished. All it does is maintain the status quo, and over the long term will strengthen the english teams. If this continues, there will be a European Super League within 15 years.
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Re the last paragraph, how would that play with the general public in Italy?
Probably not great...
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would like rakitic but its not worth selling so many players in a scramble to make it happen
