The Premiershits

[Wowbagger]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/nov/17/premier-league-financial-fair-play-everton-manchester-city-chelsea

Everton have been docked 10 points. According to the above article, Manchester City and Chelsea could well be in line for much heftier penalties.

I suppose it's at least as interesting as football.

[citoyen]

There’s some very interesting stuff in the findings that hint at how they will treat City and Chelsea. Specifically, they accept as a mitigating factor that Everton didn’t deliberately and cynically break financial roles in order to gain a sporting advantage. This is especially pertinent to the 115 charges faced by City, who I hope will have the book thrown them. Very hard.

I’m not sure Chelsea should be subject to the same sanctions since it was their new owners who revealed the financial irregularities to the authorities, but they should have all their unfairly win titles stripped.

Mind you, none of what has come out about Chelsea will be any surprise to anyone who has been following football for the past 20 years.

[Snakehips]

I fell out of love with football a very long time ago, roughly about the time when diving and 'simulation' became so prevalent. I follow the goings on of the Premiership because of its soap opera like characteristics.

[spesh]

There’s some very interesting stuff in the findings that hint at how they will treat City and Chelsea. Specifically, they accept as a mitigating factor that Everton didn’t deliberately and cynically break financial roles in order to gain a sporting advantage. This is especially pertinent to the 115 charges faced by City, who I hope will have the book thrown them. Very hard.

City getting reamed would be karma, which they managed to dodge WRT UEFA's FFP rules:

What’s more, in 2014, the club had accepted that it had broken the financial fair play (FFP) regulations set by UEFA, European football’s governing body, but then in 2020, successfully overturned a guilty verdict found against it.

https://www.economicsobservatory.com/football-finances-whats-going-on-with-manchester-city

I’m not sure Chelsea should be subject to the same sanctions since it was their new owners who revealed the financial irregularities to the authorities, but they should have all their unfairly win titles stripped.

Mind you, none of what has come out about Chelsea will be any surprise to anyone who has been following football for the past 20 years.

That line in the Guardian piece linked above about payments from Abramovich-owned companies had me immediately thinking "money laundering"

Mind you, Chelsea's new owners appear to have been playing "hunt the loophole" in order to get away with spaffing record-breaking amounts of money on player transfers. Per talkSPORT in August:

The first and primary reason Chelsea are not falling foul of FPP is that they have found financial workarounds for their incoming players.

The club have handed many new stars extremely long-term contracts rather than the the traditional four or five year deals.

Record arrival Caicedo, for example, has penned an eight-year deal with an option of a ninth to join.

This process is called amortisation, which spreads out the cost of transfer fees over a longer period so that the annual cost is reduced.

UEFA closed this loophole this summer by including a five year maximum on contract length, but the Premier League has not yet followed suit.

Chelsea's 12th placed finish last season also means that they do not have to adhere to UEFA regulations as they did not qualify for Europe.

Simon Jordan has outlined how that approach under Boehly has helped the Blues to stay within the laws of FFP, albeit with a loophole.

https://talksport.com/football/1534030/chelsea-transfer-news-ffp-rules-explained-boehly/

As the talkSPORT piece goes on to explain, Chelsea could yet find themselves in trouble WRT FFP rules (on top of any sanctions applied for what happened under Abramovich's ownership).

[Wowbagger]

On a rather more mundane level, I expect there to be a full programme of matches over the weekend, yet there are only two matches in the premiership today, and another two tomorrow.

Am I just old-fashioned, thinking that Saturday afternoon should be reserved for football?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Do you mean that Saturday afternoon should be reserved for football or that football should be reserved for Saturday afternoon?

[Wowbagger]

Yes.

[Robh]

They're taking a winter break:

https://talksport.com/football/1469227/premier-league-winter-break-fixture-dates-kick-off-times-commentary-live-stream/#:~:text=The%202023%2F24%20Premier%20League,around%20the%202022%20World%20Cup.&text=The%20Premier%20League%20took%20a,factor%20in%20the%20Qatar%20tournament.

"The Premier League is currently holding its mid-season break.
Teams played three games in nine days around Christmas before the FA Cup third round was held during the first weekend of January.
Five games were held from January 13 to 15 and the other five will be played the week after, January 20 to 22.
The Premier League will then return in full with midweek games on January 30 and 31 before another round of fixtures over the weekend of February 2 and 3.
The FA Cup fourth round will also be held during the weekend of January 27 and 28."