Working mechanism of Uefa Financial Fair Play (FFP) in FM24

[Costav]

Hi all,

I am opening this topic because it's not clear enough to me how exactly the FFP works in the game. I know (more or less) how it works in real life, but I found that application in the game is quite odd, so I'm trying to understand if is poorly implemented or if I miss something.

As to make long-term saves more challenging I tend to manage clubs with financial issues, more than once  I ended up in clubs with huge negative balances for three years in a row. However, not once it happened  to receive a sanction from UEFA (or to be disqualified by European competitions acquired based on the final table in domestic leagues). 
How is this possible? Is there something on the financial side that is excluded from the FFP?

Moreover, all of this was combined with negative transfer balances, which means that I could spend more than what I earned during the transfer windows, without having an impact on the FFP.

Edited May 30 by Costav

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

It doesn't work. This was raised in the bugs forum months and months ago but sadly was not addressed. The fields are all in the editor but they are never activated in the game.

[Costav]

So basically you can spend as much as you want (or have negative balances) but you will almost never end up in FFP sanctions?

[Costav]

I've read a lot of posts in the bug forum and it's really a pity that FFP is so poorly implemented, also because although financial struggling is a common issue IRL (and a very cool challenge in the game) in FM it seems to be a very remote option.

However, my example is not related to missing sanctions but more on the fact that balances are heavily negative and FFP is still positive (even if market transfers are negative).
So I am wondering: what is considered in the FFP? Are there expenditures left out from the calculation?

Edited May 30 by Costav

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

8 hours ago, Costav said:

So I am wondering: what is considered in the FFP? Are there expenditures left out from the calculation

If you check the pre game editor there is a drop down list of what conditions you want to include for FFP. I'll dig it out if I get a mo later

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

This is from Advanced Rules in the editor:

[Cloud9]

On 28/05/2024 at 06:24, Costav said:

Hi all,

I am opening this topic because it's not clear enough to me how exactly the FFP works in the game. I know (more or less) how it works in real life, but I found that application in the game is quite odd, so I'm trying to understand if is poorly implemented or if I miss something.

As to make long-term saves more challenging I tend to manage clubs with financial issues, more than once  I ended up in clubs with huge negative balances for three years in a row. However, not once it happened  to receive a sanction from UEFA (or to be disqualified by European competitions acquired based on the final table in domestic leagues). 
How is this possible? Is there something on the financial side that is excluded from the FFP?

Moreover, all of this was combined with negative transfer balances, which means that I could spend more than what I earned during the transfer windows, without having an impact on the FFP.

FM FFP operates on a three year rolling period and is slightly different to IRL (where factors like amortization come into play).

In game if you exceed what you're allowed to spend in that period, you will receive point penalties and bans (you can view this on the finances screen, it will appear in red if you're in danger). If you're lucky your board can bail you out to some extent. The influence of a debt of a club has been reworked this year to impact things more than in previous versions. On launch, my Sheffield Wednesday side received a negative budget on our promotion to their Premier League as the club barely escaped administration a few years back and is still in massive debt. This has been reworked and is less punishing then before, but is still in effect.

I would recommend figuring out the parameters you're willing to play with regarding transfers in your own save. The game is a sandbox, one of its strong points, and there are many things that can feel exploitative.

For reference I've found the following limitations to make the transfer market more realistic and recruitment rewarding. Feel free to pick and choose any that work for how you like to play or disregard entirely:

• No loans
• No installments or future fees
• Only signing players your scouts can bring to you in recruitment focuses
  • No signing players directly from youth teams 
  • No signing from domestic rivals
  • No NxGn list or scouting u23 national teams directly
• No Saudi transfers in or out and no Saudi released free transfers
• No contracts structured longer than a 5+1 deal
  • No using a DoF to circumvent release clauses
• Limited number (x) of transfers in/out in a calendar year
• No more than a 15% sell on fee and only if the player asks for one in his contract.

Those are just some examples that work well for me  Again, I think establishing how you'd like to play (whether that's looking up wonderkids or setting challenges) is essential to an immersive and enjoyable football manager experience. 

Edited June 1 by Cloud9

[Costav]

10 hours ago, Cloud9 said:

FM FFP operates on a three year rolling period and is slightly different to IRL (where factors like amortization come into play).

In game if you exceed what you're allowed to spend in that period, you will receive point penalties and bans (you can view this on the finances screen, it will appear in red if you're in danger). If you're lucky your board can bail you out to some extent. The influence of a debt of a club has been reworked this year to impact things more than in previous versions. On launch, my Sheffield Wednesday side received a negative budget on our promotion to their Premier League as the club barely escaped administration a few years back and is still in massive debt. This has been reworked and is less punishing then before, but is still in effect.

I would recommend figuring out the parameters you're willing to play with regarding transfers in your own save. The game is a sandbox, one of its strong points, and there are many things that can feel exploitative.

For reference I've found the following limitations to make the transfer market more realistic and recruitment rewarding. Feel free to pick and choose any that work for how you like to play or disregard entirely:

• No loans
• No installments or future fees
• Only signing players your scouts can bring to you in recruitment focuses
  • No signing players directly from youth teams 
  • No signing from domestic rivals
  • No NxGn list or scouting u23 national teams directly
• No Saudi transfers in or out and no Saudi released free transfers
• No contracts structured longer than a 5+1 deal
  • No using a DoF to circumvent release clauses
• Limited number (x) of transfers in/out in a calendar year
• No more than a 15% sell on fee and only if the player asks for one in his contract.

Those are just some examples that work well for me  Again, I think establishing how you'd like to play (whether that's looking up wonderkids or setting challenges) is essential to an immersive and enjoyable football manager experience. 

Thanks for sharing your experience!

I agree that, after almost 20 years playing FM, you need sometimes to put limitations to increase the challenge. However here the thing is that doesn't matter if I have negative balances (for more than two years in a row), UCL (i.e. UEFA) FFP is always ok. 
As an example, I managed to become the coach of As Roma in 2028. The club was absent from UEFA competitions during the last year and I joined the club after a bad season for them (no uefa qualification). I signed the contract right after the last matchday of the season, so I could have a look at the balance of the season that just ended and the previous one: in both seasons the balance was negative (-50M on aggregate). At the end of my first season, we had a slightly negative balance (I sold half of the team, aggregate balance -150M, transfer balance +27M), but still the club was in compliance with the FFP. The season after, same thing. 4 seasons in a row with negative balances at the end of each year and no FFP issue (with FFP previsions of +30/35M). That's why I really struggle to understand how FFP works in FM24.

This is just an example, but I have a long experience in the game and I could have brought-up others

IRL I see a lot of clubs (and I know Roma is one of them, being a supporter of as Roma) struggling in the transfer windows because they need to sell/reduce expenditures to stay in compliance with FFP, but none of this is implemented in FM.