[Eccles_boy1957]

I don't know whether to jump with joy or throw up with fear.

On the one hand Platini really does want to make a difference. he wants it to be about the football. I really admire that.

On the other hand I sometimes get the feeling he has it in for English clubs if you catch my drift. Maybe it's because Premier League clubs have the most cash.

If Platini does walk the walk as well as talk the talk then he could introduce this licensing system to prevent clubs from amassing huge debts.

What do you think would happen to United? Or in fact all English clubs with rich foreign sugar daddies?

City would be broke again after one glorious season of having money. I guess overall I'm happy with the idea. I'm all for variety.

I would rather see a whole host of clubs across Europe competing to be the best rather than one league dominating for years.

I think United would survive.

Have I missed something???

I was happy with the other ideas he came up with as they seem to attack the bitters situation and would stop the sheik from just buying their way to the top - whilst not attacking us on debt so long as we can service it

These comments are the opposite (are they not) - focussing on us and others like us - the bitters would be home free as the sheik has not loaded the club with debt like the scouse, chelski and us

 

[Eccles_boy1957]

I share your concerns - and I think many are in denial

I would swap the bitters financial position for ours in a heartbeat - how are they going to go bust??

Their debts have been cleared - 'real cash' paid up front rather than over years has been used for their transfers - their balance sheet is not being loaded with massive debt - unlike the our model where it is like some huge buy to let investment with the tenant (us) paying the landlord's (MG) mortgage while the asset appreciates

Clubs like the scouse and others are also far more at risk and obviously RM should be a major risk - but there seem to be different rules and regulations in Spain

We have 2 problems in today's financial world:

1/ Yes - we can afford to manage our current level of debt - but it seems we cannot really afford to increase it and with the transfer market being affected by the likes of the bitters - and worryingly more cash-rich investors coming on to the scene - we will find it hard to get the top players (I am delighted we are top at the moment but this is not a strong squad in comparison to previous ones) - so we may be unable to significantly improve our squad in the next couple of years

2/ For those clubs that are heavily loaded with debt then there is major risk if the revenue of those clubs reduces - obviously the scouse are the major risk here if they drop out of the CL places - but even we would be hurt if we do not keep winning things year on year.

And combined these 2 issues are the rub - if we cannot afford to increase our debt for new players then we might just start to fail to win trophies - which impacts revenue - which further reduces ability to fund transfers and so on......

I think this is what SAF was meaning - as always he is very clever in the way he words it and it sounds as if he is talking about other clubs - certainly not us - but our model was set to give him £25m a year - which seemed a lot - not now. It is for these reasons that clubs like RM and ourselves (also Chelsea) have been lobbying Platini to put restrictions on the rich owners and make transfers funding dependent on revenue which would be good for us.

Yes - I am very very worried and I would really wish that we had been bought by a very rich person rather than a buy to let investor