Are investments on players classified as capital investments applied to the balance sheet, or operating expenses on the P&L?
Nogood "asking Statto, MJG, accountants, other financial types out there or Macintosh, isit" Boyo
intangible assets on the balance sheet
amortization of existing players go in p&l
i think sales for more than book value also go in p&l (eg roberts)
that's my understanding but not an accountant so my be wrong (particularly the last part)
Sounds about right. Sales for less than book value go as losses in the P&L too.
Since one or two people are talking sense rather than uninformed opinion. Can I ask over how many years the player capex is amortized? Does the club have flexibility over this or is the period defined under FFP?
MJG knows more about this and has posted on it before
in the regular accounts i'm pretty sure it amortizes over the term of the contract
but for the accounts submitted to the football league under FFP i wouldn't be surprised if there are different & more specific rules. as i've said before it's all very opaque. the full ffp rules should be published.
A players value and cost to a team is spread over the term of a contract. That would be his transfer plus wages.
So for example player A cost £5M and his wages were £1m a year on a five year contract.
His paper value in Year 1 is £10M
Year 2 £8M
Year 3 £6M
Year 4 £4M
Year 5 £2M
Thats how you would see it in official accounts as assets.
But my understanding is that FFP submitted accounts does not allow the spread of Fees to be calculated like this. But for once me and Statto agree, the rules are very vague and hard to actually find the real information clubs have to give to the league.
