Town MD Ian Milne believes points deductions for breaking the Championship's Financial Fair Play rules (FFP) might be the only way for some clubs to take the regulations seriously. In his programme interview at the end of the season Blues owner Marcus Evans described the situation with FFP as appearing to be “a total farce” and Milne agrees.
While the Blues have kept to FFP a number of other clubs have recorded significantly higher losses than those permitted by the rules.
Currently clubs whose losses exceed the limits who are still in the Championship are subject to transfer embargoes, while those that have been promoted to the Premier League are fined.
The likes of Blackburn, Fulham, Bolton and Nottingham Forest have all faced embargoes, while Bournemouth were recently fined £7.6 million.
QPR’s losses during the 2013/14 season were such that they could have been facing a £58 million fine but they began legal proceedings against the Football League last May.
"There are a lot of clubs who are playing to the FFP rules and it’s farcical that the Football League aren’t making an example of a number of clubs, particularly QPR,” Milne said.
"I think that it is a concern that they haven’t come out with a decision on QPR, clearly it makes you think whether QPR have threatened to invalidate the rules, which, if that is the case, there’s a problem with all the Football League rules. That’s part of the issue for us, those things are just farcical.”
Regarding QPR’s challenge, Milne says he’s not sure of the current situation.
"I wish I knew,” he added. "I tried to get more out of Lee Hoos, who is the chief executive of QPR, and the most I could get out of him was that he seemed to be saying that they were challenging the rules or that’s where they were going, but nothing more.
"It is very frustrating. As we know, the Football League is still pushing out fines and embargoes and all the rest of it but it seems a little bit all over the place and I can’t say anything better than Marcus, it’s farcical. It’s very frustrating."
Equally frustrating must be operating in an environment when you're fully aware that a number of clubs are clearly not keeping to the rules.
"It is," Milne continued. "But it is possible to still beat those teams. I’m not just saying it. With the right manager and the right squad we would have had [but for injuries], and we still will have, a good look into those six places.”
Milne believes the fines have been ineffective, given the huge sums clubs receive once promoted to the Premier League.
"I think [embargoes] have probably hurt one or two teams, they have meant they’ve not progressed,” he continued.
"But the fines may not and maybe it has got to be points deductions for clubs to take it seriously. They’ve got an advantage. ‘Financial doping’ you called it. Well put.”
Milne says Blues owner Evans, like those in charge of other Championship clubs, has a limit on how much he is willing to pay out with Town again set to make a loss during 2015/16.
"I think it’s also important to note that like you or me, every owner in the Championship each has a budget that they’re prepared to spend on it,” Milne added.
"Some of their budgets are higher, they go up and down, or remain at the same level. I think Steve Gibson at Middlesbrough has been consistently spending a lot of money, he’s a very nice guy and good luck to him now he’s gone up.
"But he’s had to consistently put a lot of money, and I mean a lot of money, into Middlesbrough and it’s paid off this season for them.
"At the end of the day it’s up to Marcus how much he wants to put into it, just as it’s up to us how much case we’ve got to spend on things from day to day.
"But again, our salary bill [is up 25 per cent over the last two seasons and 15 per cent over the last season]. It’s FFP and how much the owner wants to spend on a club and we think that’s a decent amount at the moment.
"Marcus is determined to stay within FFP but how they spend the money is up to him and Mick.”
Photo: ITFC