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McCarthy: Not Such Fair Play - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Mick McCarthy says Financial Fair Play needs a new name as he believes it has contributed towards creating a less than even playing field in the Championship.

The break-even model adopted by the Championship means clubs are limited to losses of £3 million - plus a further £3 million via owner equity investment - during 2014/15.

But, with Premier League parachute payments having increased to £60 million over four years, the relegated former top flight clubs now have spending power well beyond that of established Championship sides such as the Blues.

"I think they should change the name ‘Financial Fair Play’ - £11 million spent on one player [Fulham’s Ross McCormack]? The parachute payments that they get for coming down out of the Premier League don’t render a fair playing field at all,” McCarthy said.

"But, it makes it more of a challenge and it makes it more interesting and certainly more rewarding when you get results through doing it [while adhering to] Financial Fair Play. And that’s where we’re at.

"Is it possible for us to win promotion? Burnley, I don’t know exactly what they did in terms of their finances, but what a result they had last season.

"Nobody would have sat here a year ago and tipped them to get promoted, so why not? I don’t know if it’s going to be us or somebody else but that’s what we’re trying for.”

A number of clubs appear to have been ignoring the Financial Fair Play rules and will face transfer embargoes in January if their accounts for 2013/14 - which will be published in December - show that to be the case. Sides transgressing the rules who have already been promoted to the Premier League will be hit with hefty fines.

McCarthy hopes that will be the case, although he's not 100 per cent convinced: "I’m waiting to see what happens. Excuse me for being an old cynic. I’ll wait and see what happens to them all.

"If they’re the rules and we’re adhering to them, then I would expect that others do get punished.

"I’ll just wait and see. It remains to be seen with me. I’m wondering how they’re going to do it, what they’re going to do and what sanctions are going to be in place, transfer embargoes and fines. Let’s wait and see what happens.

"But in the meantime, because that doesn’t really bother me, I’ll just crack on and keep doing what I do and we do here and try and get results for Ipswich.”

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