• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Football Thread 2013/14 |ot22| Financial Fair Play? Je ne comprends pas.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Hixx

Member
waaaaaaaat

Brotherhood is the absolute best AC has to offer.

Thinking of treating myself to Watch Dogs when I get back home. Then maybe Ryse/Ground Zeroes as a cheap supplement.

I mean it's not shitfest like AC3 but no game in that series is even close to being on par with AC2.
 

omgkitty

Member
The Adidas styles are odd and their shoes don't feel right to me anymore after using Nike for so long.

Never used CTRs before though, they look old school!



They're far too tight, I thought about replacing the 8.5 I got with something bigger but that would have left far too much space in front.

Did they cause the pain?

Just in my arch. Hopefully that's just because I'm still breaking them in. Mine were also tight, and they are still tight when I put them on, bu they seem to stretch a bit after having them on. Unfortunately I can't go up a size as I wear 15's which are the biggest they make.
 
AC4 > AC2 > AC3 > ACR > ACB > AC1

iZ3GVkzpVf18t.png

hmm, hard to say, if we are proritize assassin part then 2 beats 4, its pretty close as games in general though

AC2 > AC4 > AC3 > ACR >ACB > AC1
 

WJD

Member
I mean it's not shitfest like AC3 but no game in that series is even close to being on par with AC2.

I really enjoyed AC2 but I just thought Brotherhood improved on it in every way. Revelations was unnecessary, AC3 was criminally dull and I didn't really play much of AC4.
 
Another pretty good article on FFP and how it applies to Chelsea. Cesc and Costa is only the beginning.

Chelsea can easily afford to spend £150m in the transfer market this summer

As the summer transfer window is rapidly approaching, and indeed, preliminary deals have already been made, we decided it was time to take a look at how much Chelsea can afford to spend this summer.

After crunching the numbers, we found that Chelsea can easily afford to spend £150m this summer.

If your initial reaction was "this sounds a bit ridiculous," we wouldn't blame you, but we would ask that you bear with us for a moment.

While Chelsea has been taking financial fair play seriously since the regulations were first announced, the club recorded £48m in losses over during the first FFP monitoring period (covering the 2011-12 season when the club recorded a £1.4m profit and the 2012-13 season, when the club lost £49.4m).

The next monitoring period covers the 2011-2012, 2012-2013, and 2013-2014 seasons and clubs are only allowed to report around £37m in losses over the three-year period.
How, then, can we state with confidence that Chelsea can easily afford to spend £150m this summer?

First, financial fair play allows for a number of expenditures to be written off, and that £50m in actual losses is reduced considerably by the allowable write-offs. In particular, expenditures on youth development activities can be written off, as can taxes, the depreciation of fixed tangible assets, and certain exceptional items. Chelsea's youth development costs aren't made public, but based on what Barcelona reports it spends on its La Masia setup (over £16m annually), we can very conservatively estimate that Chelsea was able to write off £20m in each year.

This reduces the £48m actual loss during the first monitoring period to an £8m FFP loss, or almost £30m clear of the break-even mark.

In addition, if Chelsea needed to (which it won't), it could also use the wage exemption, which would provide close to £80m in wage write-offs. The club wasn't able use the wage exemption during the first monitoring period, and clearly had no problems meeting the break-even requirement (for reference, the wage exemption is only valid for the first two FFP monitoring periods).

Second, amortisation allows for transfer fees to be spread evenly over the life of the player's contract. Finally, and we'll discuss this in a bit, revenues have skyrocketed this season, and Chelsea can spend freely while remaining compliant with FFP.

Regular WAGNH readers will likely already be familiar with the concept, but for newcomers, amortisation is the process by which an expenditure is paid off over time on the books, and it is a uniform accounting practise employed by football clubs (i.e. it's not just something Chelsea decided to do on its own to make the books look better and it's not something clubs can opt into or out of year-to-year). It's important to note that this is just an accounting practise. Roman Abramovich and Chelsea will still have to pay the full transfer fee immediately, or if the selling club agrees, in installments over the course of a few months (clubs that don't have large amounts of capital at their disposal will often work out short-term payment plans to fund transfer purchases, but this isn't an issue Chelsea has to worry about, and I only mention it to be thorough).

So, for example, Chelsea could easily afford to buy Paul Pogba, Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, and Luke Shaw this summer.

On the surface, that sounds a bit absurd, but let's throw some numbers out there.

Paul Pogba - £45m transfer fee and a five-year deal at £150k per week
Diego Costa - £32m transfer fee and a five-year deal at £185k per week
Cesc Fabregas - £30m transfer fee and a five-year deal at £150k per week
Luke Shaw - £30m transfer fee and a five-year deal at £100k per week

Note that these are all fairly high estimates on transfer fees and wages, but when projecting FFP expenses, it's always best to use a higher figure (and when projecting revenues, it's best to use the lower figure).

Those four deals amount to £137m in transfer fees and £30.4m in additional wages in each of the next five years.

It seems like Chelsea would be on the hook for an additional £167.4m for 2014-15, right?

Not quite. For the purposes of FFP accounting (which is really the only sort of accounting that matters where Chelsea is concerned), transfer fees are amortised over the life of the contract. So, Paul Pogba doesn't cost £45m for 2014-15. Rather, he costs £9m in each of the next five seasons (in addition to his wages).

When we factor in the amortised transfer fee and the annual wages, we find that the annual costs are as follows -

Paul Pogba - £17m
Diego Costa - £16m
Cesc Fabregas - £13.8m
Luke Shaw - £11.2m

As we see, that £167m becomes a much more manageable £58m on the books.
While £58m looks small compared to £167m, it's still an enormous amount of money. The question then becomes, can Chelsea afford to add £58m to its FFP wage bill for the next five seasons?

The answer is "yes, easily."

Chelsea's 2013-14 finances won't be released for several months, but we project earnings to be around £340m, which represents a hefty £80m+ increase from 2012-13 (note that this figure includes not only commercial, broadcasting, and matchday revenue, but also the profit from the Juan Mata, Kevin de Bruyne, and Jeffrey Bruma sales).

Commercial revenues steadily increase each year and as the Premier League continues to establish itself as the world's best domestic football competition, broadcasting revenues will continue to increase. As such, Chelsea will likely continue to see steady growth.

The total FFP cost for Chelsea's players (wages plus amortised transfer fee less any transfer profit) decreased from £157m in 2012-13 to £143.4m in 2013-14.

As of today, the 2014-15 "FFP wage bill" is under £125m. We'll roll out an update of our player wage database in the coming weeks, but the departures of of David Luiz, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, and likely Samuel Eto'o reduces the wage bill by over £22m. In addition, the transfer window doesn't officially open until 1 July, and therefore, the David Luiz deal can't be finalised until then. 1 July also happens to be the first day of the 2014-15 financial year. As such, the entire £36.5m profit from the Luiz sale will be recorded on the 2014-15 books and is factored into our FFP wage bill.

However, the cost of Nemanja Matic, Mohamed Salah, Kurt Zouma, and Mario Pasalic will double next season. Since these players were purchased in January, Chelsea was only assessed a pro-rated six months worth of costs. As Chelsea is now responsible for the full year, these four players will add just over £8m to the 2014-15 books.

In addition, Kenneth Omeruo signed a new contract (essentially a one-year extension through 2018), and he'll be receiving a pay raise. For the purposes of calculating the 2014-15 FFP wage bill, we're also assuming that Romelu Lukaku, Thibaut Courtois, and Victor Moses will be returning to Chelsea next season. They were out on loan during 2013-14, and on top of paying 100% of their wages, the loaning clubs also paid Chelsea loan fees. As such, the FFP cost of Lukaku, Courtois, and Moses was £2.5m combined during 2013-14. That number rises to about £12.4m in 2014-15. Bringing these players back into the fold is money extremely well spent in my eyes (and especially so when you realise that Fernando Torres, by himself, costs £18.5m per season), but it's worth noting, as it adds nearly £10m to the FFP wage bill.
When it's all said and done, Chelsea has reduced its annual FFP player cost by more than £30m over the past two seasons, while commercial and broadcasting revenues alone have increased by £62m.

This is a £92m swing, and this is why Chelsea can absorb another £58m in FFP player costs while remaining compliant with financial fair play.

That £58m in player costs, of course, works out to over £167m in actual costs for 2014-15, and as such, we're actually being very conservative when we state that Chelsea can easily afford to spend £150m this summer.

Now, just because the club can afford to spend freely doesn't, by itself, mean that it will. However, Roman Abramovich has proven (literally billions of times over) that he is happy to spend if it will increase the club's chances of success.

As he said over ten years ago when he first bought the club, "it's not about making money. I have many much less risky ways of making money than this. I don't want to throw my money away, but it's really about having fun and that means success and trophies."

As such, we should fully expect Chelsea to have a very busy summer, and we should see quite a few new faces in both the first team as well as in the ever-growing army of young talent on loan.

http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2014/6/5/5777740/chelsea-summer-transfer-budget
 
Just in my arch. Hopefully that's just because I'm still breaking them in. Mine were also tight, and they are still tight when I put them on, bu they seem to stretch a bit after having them on. Unfortunately I can't go up a size as I wear 15's which are the biggest they make.

That's some big feet

PrFOWgn.gif
 

GHG

Gold Member
WTF is thee point of FFP? I can't believe Wenger has spent all this time banking on it making a change.

Just sign Fabregas FFS, our team is full of crocks.
 
Uruguay
Ewxoi7J.png


mG1Va5X.jpg
0v0I0iY.jpg
7hBKiAy.jpg


Nickname: Los Charrúas
Rivals: Argentina and Brazil, I guess
World Ranking: 7th
Previous Record: 11 visits, including this one
Best: Champions, 1930 and 1950
Last: Semi-final, 2010

Route to the Finals:
Most players remain from their 2010 team, as does the head coach, Oscar Tabarez. Diego Forlan, their most capped player may well be used as a substitute, being 35 years old

Uruguay had a very underwhelming qualifying campaign, finishing 5th in the CONMEBOL table. While they finished reasonably comfortably above 6th place, which would have seen them miss out, they did not finish high enough to avoid the intercontinental playoff, in which they beat Jordan 5-0 on aggregate.

Players to watch:

Edinson Cavani
RSxaVy3.jpg


One of Uruguay's star strikers, Cavani actually has a strange record for Uruguay. Forced to play as a left inside forward due to the presence of Suarez/Forlan, he has a poor record of competitive goals for his country. Uruguay will be hoping for him to improve in that area, without losing the balance that he brings to the side by playing out of position.


Diego Godin
YUu1gRk.jpg


Proved himself over the last season to be one of the best centrebacks in the world, winning the league with the Athletico Madrid and scoring the goal that won it for them. Also scored in the Champions League final. If he can retain his club form for the tournament, Uruguay will prove to be a very tough nut to crack. Will need to be at his best to cover for a declining Diego Lugano, his partner at centreback.

Luis Suarez
wU2ZMzF.jpg


Where to start with this guy? A jack in the box. An enigma. A timebomb. One of the best, one of the worst. Jawdropping, for the right and wrong reasons. Bound to do something that leaves you in a state of disbelief. Bound to do something that leaves you in a state of disgust. Third best player in the world, debatably. Just had his best season as a pro, scoring 31 goals in 33 league games, with no penalties. Propensity to lose his head, combined with stunning ability and a steel desire to win. Entered sporting infamy worldwide when he handballed a certain last-minute Ghana goal off the line in 2010, from which they missed the penalty and lost the shootout. Followed that up with a smidgeon of racist abuse, an insulting gesture towards some fans, and a gentle knawing of an arm. I'll be honest, I should hate him, and you should too. But he possesses such talent, it's worth watching football matches just to see what he can come up with. Not just one to watch for Uruguay, one to watch overall. Uruguay's top scorer with 38 goals in 77 games. Coming into the tournament on the back of an operation on his knee. May underperform given that fact, in which case the entire tournament is a write-off.

Trivia (suck it Wes, I'm making my own category): Uruguay's entire population is just 3,325,000


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

France
125px-Flag_of_France.svg.png


UtT8JBQ.jpg
peWpsLb.jpg
PgTnals.png


Nickname: Les Bleus
Rivals: Italy, I guess
World Ranking: 17th
Previous WC: 14 visits, including this one
Best: Champions, 1998
Last: Group Stage, 2010

Route to the Finals:

A few new faces in and around the team since this time 4 years ago, with young players like Mamadou Sakho and Paul Pogba being integrated into the team. There are still a number of experienced players in the team, including a few who were assumed to be frozen out of the team after their actions in the last world cup. The biggest change is the manager, with France legend Didier Deschamps replacing Laurent Blanc in 2012, who himself had replaced Raymond Domenech, France's manager in 2010

France's path to qualification had a massive spanner thrown into the works when they were drawn into the same group as Spain, which made top spot, and automatic qualification, an improbable task. While they drew 1-1 in Spain, giving themselves a good oppurtunity to finish 1st, they lost 1-0 at home to the same opponents, leaving them 2nd, a massive 8 points ahead of Finland in 3rd. This finish left them with a playoff tie against Ukraine, in which they lost the first leg 2-0 in Ukraine, and won the second 3-0, with 2 goals from legendary centreback Mamadou Sakho.

Players to watch:

Paul Pogba:
ekTwV50.jpg


One of the brightest young talents in the sport, Pogba is a brute. Technically brilliant, swaggering, strong, quick. Forced his way into France's starting lineup at the tender age of 21 with his performances for Juventus, if France are to do well in this torunament, it will probably be in large part due to his ability to carry the ball forward, and keep play moving in the final third


Laurent Koscielny
rMmVpzw.jpg


Coming off of his best season in an Arsenal shirt, Koscielny is a theoretically brilliant centre back. Fast, agile, a good tackler, decent header, very good passer and great at carrying the ball out of defense when the space allows it, to put his team right on the front foot. However, there's a reason I said 'theoretically.' He is well capable of completely losing his head, making a stupid mistake to cost his team, be it poor positioning, trying to win an unwinnable ball, giving a penalty away with a silly tackle or being sent off. At his best, he is fantastic, but there's always the feeling that he could easily do something to prove to be a liability as much as anything. If he can cut that from his game for just a month, France will have one of the best centrebacks at the tournament.


Franck Ribery
oaIgjCI.jpg


On the sidelines. Crying sweet, salty tears. No World Cup for you, Franck. Should have been blacklisted from the France setup after 2010 where he was the orchestrator of the entire atmosphere in the camp becoming poisonous, contributing to their disgraceful performances on the pitch. Au revoir, you nonce.


Trivia: When France's former manager Domenech was expected to announce his called-for resignation at a press conference after France's exit from Euro 2008, he instead used the oppurtunity to propose to his girlfriend

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

England
a2qIOvi.png


8cHuTKD.jpg
04AbgJX.jpg
qyHvLRq.jpg


Nickname:The Three Lions (though nobody really calls us that)
Rivals: Argentina
World Ranking: 10th
Previous WC: 13, including this one
Best: Champions, 1966
Last: Round of 16, 2010

Route to the Finals:

Pretty big changes between the national setup now, and that of 2010. Many players have retired or become more bit-part, such as Ferdinand, Terry, Cole, Heskey (lol), Crouch, Barry and Defoe. Also a change at the managerial level, with Fabio Capello departing and Roy Hodgson taking charge. Playstyle is much the same however, generally confused, inconsistent, and incapable of attacking and defending well at the same time. This World Cup is set up to be a little muddled, with some players looking to gain experience from being there, others seeing it as their last chance to do something for England, and nobody knowing whether to be pessimistic or cautiously optimistic about our chances of getting past the group stage, let alone making an impact in the knockout stages.

The path to the tournament was reasonably simple as it was never really out of our hands, though we cut it fine at the end, only finishing above 2nd placed Ukraine by a solitary point. Nobody in the country much fancied our chances in a playoff scenario, so that was a welcome relief, though there was never much chance of finishing third given the fact that there was a 6-point gap between Ukraine and 3rd-placed Montenegro. Playing for a 0-0 draw in Ukraine, which was hugely criticised at the time, ended up being a smart move as it proved the difference.

Players to watch:

Wayne Rooney

L42W9KA.jpg


The Great White Hope, The White Pele, The White Stripes, The Wright Stuff......wait. England's talisman, the man we look to before every big match to make the difference for us, the most marketed English player. But that tells nowhere near the full story with this guy. Prone to lose his head, prone to disappear when we need him most, prone to score, prone to look like the only competent player in our attack, prone to be the worst player in our attack. In my opinion, far too inconsistent to be given the amount of responsibility he has been given since 2006 or so, but the guy has plenty of goals in him even when he's not playing well. For the first time in his career, the question has been asked about whether he is worth his squad position as a guaranteed starter, no matter what form he's in, how fit he is, or which tactical setup will be employed. At 28, this is perhaps his last chance to make an impact on a World Cup (a positive one, anyway), as he's yet to score at one, and was sent off against Portugal in 2006. In fairness, he has not been fit going into the last 2 World Cups, but such is the pressure we put on him to win us matches single-handedly, he's played anyway. I think it's fair to say he struggles to reach our media's unrealistic expectations, but he is capable of fantastic performances in a few different positions, which we'll need from him.

Daniel Sturridge
ZbYtdPP.jpg


The unexpected rise of the Liverpool striker has been something to behold, and thrown a bit of a spanner in the works for the national team. It used to be that it was Rooney+1, and nobody really had any faith in that +1 doing something special, or taking pressure off of Rooney to score all the goals, since Owen declined anyway. Now, England finally seem to have someone capable of leading the line either alongside Rooney, or in his stead if necessary. Fast, quick on the turn, occasionally annoyingly selfish, with a left foot like a traction engine, and a great sense of where to be to get a shot on goal, he's finally living up to the potential he showed 4 year or so ago. There's been a lot of debate about changing the entire systm in order to get the best from Sturridge and make him the main man, but that is not going to happen. Sometimes frustrating to watch, but he should inject some real class into England's attacking unit. I say 'should' because he still hasn't got many caps, and he's only recently forced himself into England's first 11.

Steven Gerrard
HEXWLvX.jpg


Similar to Rooney in many ways, Gerrard has never truly recaptured his club form for England, constantly struggling to find a role within the team to get the best of his own ability, and build a partnership with whoever he has played with in centre-midfield, normally Frank Lampard. However, England's captain has had something of a renaissance over the last 12 months, moving to a deeper midfield quarterback role, which in theory gets the best of his long passing ability, and negates his declining pace and stamina as much as possible. As good as he's been for Liverpool in this role though, he is still not the most consistent passer, and is liable to give a few balls away, which are either almost harmlessly kicked into touch, or worryingly set up a counterattack as they leave everyone out of position. Also, while he plays as a defensive midfielder, he's not the best at actually defending, be it tracking runners, positioning to intercept, or the basic instincts you find in a player who's been there for his entire career. I worry that this lack of instinct and fitness could be exposed against better teams than those found in the Premier League, and if that transpires, any chance of having a successful World Cup may well slip away. This will almost certainly be Gerrard's final tournament for England, so he'll be desperate to make it a good one, especially coming off of last season's somach-punch. If Gerrard plays decently, England will have a platform to succeed. If he doesn't, we're screwed.


Trivia: England will win the World Cup

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I realise I haven't said anything about Rooney's actual ability in his section, but I ran out room and there's a huge disparity between the way he can play, and the way he does play.

Also, I only realised Sturridge's photo is from the Daily Mail and has a copyright watermark on it when I'd already resized it, not sure if I should choose a different one
 

Mr Cola

Brothas With Attitude / The Wrong Brotha to Fuck Wit / Die Brotha Die / Brothas in Paris
hitch that puts mine to shame, so much words D:
 

FuturusX

Member
Normal shoes are fine. For running shoes I mostly wear Asics. Most American shoe companies make 15's. Only things I can't really wear are Adidas and Puma. For whatever reason they just don't make shoes big enough.

You have big feet...you know what they say about men with big feet?
 

Mr Cola

Brothas With Attitude / The Wrong Brotha to Fuck Wit / Die Brotha Die / Brothas in Paris
That's what I count on for Algeria! Belgium? Well it's still not nearly as long as yours haha.

I hope you gave Januzaj his fair do'es

Btw I wrote a hugely optimistic piece on Honda im thinking of revisiting after our conversation. I called him a dead ball specialist!

I shouldnt talk about players ive never seen play
 

wedward

Member
Wedward is at peace.

Lightning is the one I fear for. And Salva. Poor guys :(

I am at peace.

Get me a striker.

That tweet from Orenstein saying we "may" sign a dm if the right player is available has me nervous. If we go with Arteta for another season I'll absolutely die.
 

Herr K

Banned
I wanted to do Uruguay.

Guys, am I still sleeping or did Galliani actually managed to sign someone? How much did he pay?
 

Carbonox

Member
footy gaf meetup in london for the world cup final innit

hitch can ask us all sorts of questions in person

i want to know his thought process for those world cup entries and erryting
 

Mr Cola

Brothas With Attitude / The Wrong Brotha to Fuck Wit / Die Brotha Die / Brothas in Paris
Richard Keogh was nicknamed the 'White Cafu' in his younger days.

Always wondered is anyone ever called the black Rooney? or the Asian Ronaldo? is it exclusively a White thing? White privilege?
 
A Trinidad & Tobago player bowed to Messi before their friendly yesterday, lol.

Roma have signed Seydou Keita too. Another shrewd signing by Garcia. He still looked good for Valencia in the few games I saw, should do quite well in Serie A.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom