Is it possible to be promoted without breaching the FFP rules?

[GloucesterWhite]

The huge increase in parachute payments to clubs being relegated from the Prem from next season onwards suggests we are entering an era of 'yo-yo' relegation/promotion with the clubs coming down going back up the following season. Relegated clubs will have a much better chance of keeping premier quality players and will have money to strengthen, while clubs who have been in the Championship for many years will still be constrained by FFP (although the losses a club can make are being relaxed a little). So will it be possible to achieve promotion without busting FFP rules?

There will be the odd club that doesn't make it back for the first time of asking – maybe Villa next year. But it will get harder to get to the Prem.

Boro seem to have written the blueprint for promotion: stage 1 is to build a team within FFP constraints that challenges for promotion. Then stage 2 is to splash the cash, break the rules and go for it.

Owner Steve Gibson is reported to have spent £25M in January, that after spending on Dowling and Nugent in the summer.

The club is now odds on for promotion this year, in which case Gibson's tactics will have achieved the club's goal. But if they were to miss out Boro will be placed under embargo next season. However, would that matter that much? They would still have a very strong team and would have another run at promotion that year – the effect of FFP would not be onerous.

So is breaching FFP that bad? IMO it depends on the timing. Build the basis of a good team first and then raise two fingers to FFP and light the after-burners by adding 2-3 top quality players. 

IF the club is serious about promotion and IF our owner is willing to spend big IMO we need to follow the Boro plan.

[westcliff white]

Yes Norwich did last year didnt they

[MJG]

Yes it is. There is more to getting promoted than just throwing money at players...it helps but its not the only answer.
But I will say that for us (And many other teams) the only way is playoffs, partly due to the reasons you give.

[GloucesterWhite]

Yes Norwich did last year didnt they

Yes, but that was before the increase in parachute payments.

[gezkc]

I'm not so sure relegated clubs will have a better chance of holding onto their players - they might have money, but many players will still want to jump ship to keep playing in the Premier League.

[westcliff white]

Yes Norwich did last year didnt they

Yes, but that was before the increase in parachute payments.

Surely thats even more to their credit, they had less income to go against their expense

[GloucesterWhite]

Yes Norwich did last year didnt they

Yes, but that was before the increase in parachute payments.

Surely thats even more to their credit, they had less income to go against their expense

True. But my point is that it will be harder from next year as the clubs coming down will have more resources than relegated teams in previous years and that will enable them to continue to pay Premiership wages to their existing players and to invest in the team.

[Ordar]

From what I understand with the new TV deal, the team finishing bottom of the Premier League will gain 100m in prize money. Added to this will be the 2 (3?) years of parachute payment.

You would have to be an incredibly poorly run club not to be competing for automatic promotion from next season onwards. Which was the entire reason I was banging on about going for broke this season to get promoted.

Getting out of the division from next season onwards is going to be extremely difficult. Which is why we've seen several teams (notably Boro and Burnley spending big money this year

[Rupert]

In reply to the OP, doesn't the fact that the relegated club got relegated show that they do not have premiership quality players? Perhaps they have one or two, and perhaps they can hang on to them, but our experience suggests that a relegated squad is going to be dismantled because it has not worked, for whatever reason. This may not be the case with a club which has just yo-yoed, perhaps keeping most of the Championship winning team together and having a fun year in the top flight with no real intention of splashing the cash in a futile attempt to stay up, but surely that will be the exception to the rule?

[GloucesterWhite]

In reply to the OP, doesn't the fact that the relegated club got relegated show that they do not have premiership quality players? Perhaps they have one or two, and perhaps they can hang on to them, but our experience suggests that a relegated squad is going to be dismantled because it has not worked, for whatever reason. This may not be the case with a club which has just yo-yoed, perhaps keeping most of the Championship winning team together and having a fun year in the top flight with no real intention of splashing the cash in a futile attempt to stay up, but surely that will be the exception to the rule?

Yes we dismantled our team. But Hull and Burnley didn't and they are favourites to go back up with Boro. Fast forward to next year and if the teams coming down do the same they will also have a big pot of money as Ordar says.

It's going to be a struggle for us to get promoted. As Mike says it's not all about money, but from now on relegated clubs will have a big advantage over the rest of the division.

[Barrett487]

In reply to the OP, doesn't the fact that the relegated club got relegated show that they do not have premiership quality players? Perhaps they have one or two, and perhaps they can hang on to them, but our experience suggests that a relegated squad is going to be dismantled because it has not worked, for whatever reason. This may not be the case with a club which has just yo-yoed, perhaps keeping most of the Championship winning team together and having a fun year in the top flight with no real intention of splashing the cash in a futile attempt to stay up, but surely that will be the exception to the rule?

Yes we dismantled our team. But Hull and Burnley didn't and they are favourites to go back up with Boro. Fast forward to next year and if the teams coming down do the same they will also have a big pot of money as Ordar says.

It's going to be a struggle for us to get promoted. As Mike says it's not all about money, but from now on relegated clubs will have a big advantage over the rest of the division.

Good point, however the players that took us down were generally too old. We had to change 'some' of our squad, but maybe not all. I don't think that the old legs would have faired much better, but that's hyperthetical.

[Woolly Mammoth]

The proof has shown that Fulham handled their relegation poorly on and off the field, and we are still paying the price.
Some might even say that we have more chance of going down than going up.
Others may say that there no chance of ever getting back to the Premier Division whilst the club is being run by non footballing people.
As for my opinion, I have no idea as I am not able to look into the future. But the proof that bad decisions were made, is the fact that we are flirting with relegation again, as we were last season, after being relegated the year before. So what evidence is there, that we will not be flirting with relegation next season, assuming we avoid it this season.