I hope Financial Fair Play will help us, it remains a hope, I am also concerned it will be ignored. It isn't being delayed however, kicks in this year.
I disagree with the idea it was only ever designed to stop anyone else joining that elite little group at the top of the table. Certainly some of the clubs advocating it, including Chelsea most of all, have an element of self-interest in ensuring that another Manchester City doesn't come along and hit their club. This is true.
However that's not why UEFA brought it in and it isn't the main intention. The idea should actually help smaller clubs, and bigger clubs, by stopping the crazy inflation of wages that Chelsea and Manchester City have caused.
The wages across football keep increasing at a higher pace than the the money football makes. The wages increase across all clubs as a result and many are already struggling to pay their wages bills. It's not sustainable. Yes, this may limit the desire for a billionaire to buy out a smaller club and spend £1 billion to make them a title fighting side but it would help all the other clubs, who are not so lucky, survive. If football's main prospect for growth is the arrival of wealthy benefactors then we're playing a lottery which most clubs will lose.
This is why the
Championship enacted their own version of Financial Fair Play this year. The same principles are involved albeit with different punitive measures since they don't have the carrot of European Football to take away, but massive fines and a transfer embargo shows they are taking it seriously. This was voted for by the clubs, 21 of the 24 voted in favour, this was not the elite trying to stop people joining them. This was about clubs trying to survive.
I would also say that clubs are still able to challenge the elite. Tottenham, Newcastle and to a lesser extent Arsenal have been able to challenge for European Football without excessive riches. Newcastle almost made the top four with a sustainable business model, in a post-FFP era they would find it
easier not harder to continue to do so since everyone else would have to run their club in the same way. Spurs have managed to challenge for top 4, getting in there twice, with the same limitations. In a post-FFP era they would have an easier time keeping Modric and Bale. Why? Because when all clubs have to balance their books there will be fewer transfers and salaries will not be so disproportional between clubs.
What's more there are exceptions to allow stadium and youth development. Any money spent on infrastructural improvements (stadiums, training facilities, youth development) are exempt from being counted as losses. If you want to move forward then you can invest to these areas as much as you like.
Anyway. In summary I think FFP, if it works, will be a good thing. It's not designed to pull the drawbridge up on other teams. It will actually make it easier to compete because the clubs will be brought closer together. All it will stop is the benefactor-funded clubs being able to win the league by buying £1 billion worth of players. Instead they would have to do it the way all clubs did previously, by investing in the club itself. It will help all other clubs who did not win that lottery by deflating transfer fees, wages, and stopping all promising players being stockpiled by the elite.