Bristol City face potential points deduction; club’s CEO sends message to EFL

Bristol City face being hit with a potential points deduction as the club’s CEO sends a message to the EFL calling for change.

The Robins published a record loss of £38.4 million in their accounts last month and they could face a penalty from the English Football League if they do not change their ways.

Reading have already been punished for the 2021/22 Championship season with a six point deduction as well as another six suspended due to their financial management in the last few years.

Many clubs could end up in Reading’s position with it becoming harder to get that all important promotion to the Premier League.

Bristol City CEO Richard Gould told the media that a change in the rules and regulations should be put in place due to impact of the coronavirus pandemic when he spoke to BristolLive.

 “Are we blameless? Probably not,” Gould said. “Because we have spent quite a lot of money on transfers and our player salaries have gone up quite significantly over the last three or four years.

“That was all fine while there was a transfer market there to fund it. But now there isn’t, or at least there isn’t one the way that it was, that’s where we start falling foul of FFP.

“The EFL have always said that the current system is on its last legs and they’re going to use a new system of control, so we’ll be lobbying the EFL to bring in that new system, sooner rather than later, and use the Covid period as one where they don’t prosecute clubs overly, because of an act of God,” Gould added.

“And it won’t be just us. All those Championship clubs who have not been in the Premier League recently but have been challenging to get there, who have got good owners.

“Many of the clubs, looking at FFP black holes next year, will very strongly argue that the FFP laws simply cannot deal with Covid, and therefore don’t ruin the credibility of the league due to Covid. That will then be up to the EFL.

“I suspect a number of clubs will take very strong action and will have very strong legal cases, should they choose to go down that line.”

“We don’t own all sides of this debate and there may be more issues that come from left field,” Gould said. “But it’s something that supporters need to be aware of because it’s going to shape our decisions over the next 6-12 months but we don’t want to do it in a way which reduces the club’s ability to compete.

“But we’re not letting it impact our short-term thinking. It’s in the back of our minds but we’ve got confidence that we can see common sense prevail.

“Would we go and spend £10m on a player now? No, of course not. You’ve seen what we’ve been doing with George Tanner and Rob Atkinson. We’re unlikely to be shopping in Chelsea much longer. We’re going to have to amend our level.

“We just want to be treated fairly and we have to get the argument out on the table.

“Would we prefer to sell all our players or take a penalty hit, if they decide to prosecute? Well, that is a decision that we’ll have to look at and a judgement we take in the summer when we get more feedback from the EFL.”

Twitter users reacted as Bristol City face a potential points deduction, see what was said below…

@markribsbcfc: Trouble is your stuck between a rock and a hard place sell your best players and fight a relegation battle or take a points hit and fight a relegation either way your screwed

@ChrisBessex: Sell your best players and you might find yourself screwed for years, if you take the points deduction the same year as ten other teams you’ve got a good chance of surviving. Then it’s just a one season problem. To be honest it might make people pull together.

@rossi_rossi: He isn’t a fool. He knows exactly what he is doing. Keep the faith

@BCFCcathal: That’s basically announcing relegation already

@AGeordieRobin: The precedent is a 6 point deduction.. I’d argue selling our best players and not being able to replace them would result in more points lost on the pitch than that. Also there are likely to be other clubs in the same position.

@RealBristolBoy: Depends how many clubs are in the same boat. If, say 15 clubs get a six point deduction it will be a very strange season albeit relegation will cost about £11m for City. What a mess & let’s be fair we’ve lost £m’s for a decade

@garylmarks:
1982: Tearing up unaffordable players contracts and screwing creditors to stay alive.
2022: Tearing up FFP rules to keep unaffordable players contracts.
Same old City, always cheating…

@Chrissy___Hall: Despite the encouraging performances of late. I’d like to see the club looking to sell every player aged 22 or over apart from O’Leary, Pring, Kalas and Weimann.

@DaleE9127: This is fucking mental… we don’t have any players that I’d rather keep than have minus points

@J_D_Derham: Think there will be plenty of other clubs in the same position

@AnalyticsDerby: We could see teams intentionally take points deductions next summer if other clubs do, rather than sell players. Logically, the chance of staying up is greater if lots of teams are deducted points. When compared to Derby where it is only Reading who also have -pts this season.

@jackhennessy19: Just bloody sell, theres hardly any players i would keep bar a couple

@MMilko83: Over half the league will fail FFP, we were in a good position before Covid so don’t think it’s anything to worry about.

@Cobby5: If the @EFL change the rules regarding losses during Covid, then they surely leave themselves open for Derby to claim that the Points Deduction for Administration should be waived due to Covid reasons.

@adamcm88: The efl arnt fit for purpose. Absolutely killing football clubs. I get our owner got us in this mess but fuck me they don’t half love to get involved and turn the screw. Rules need to change, can’t keep docking teams points when its got fuckall to do with the players/fans.

@KitNerdUK: I doubt we’ll be the only Championship club in trouble for finances, so keep the players and compete with about 35 other teams with a points deduction

@McStreety: It’s a clever stance to take. Outside of transfer window he’d say “we’ll be doing everything to avoid a points deduction” – Looking desperate at the moment will alert in the scavengers, lower transfer offers for our best assets etc

@ArniedBS3: So 23 Championship teams will start 2022/23 on -6 points 🙄

@Paul444221934: I want to see other clubs accounts to tbh as I can’t see us being the only one.

Pretend we’re not going to sell so the price of the players stay high! pic.twitter.com/0ViVxieymU

— Paul Harding (@Paulhards1978) January 12, 2022