Paul Conway has another moan
Barnsley co-chairman Paul Conway has highlighted clubs’ willingness to break Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules and the authorities’ failure to punish those culpable as one the biggest challenges he has faced during his time in English football.
Conway is co-founder of the Pacific Media Group (PMG), who in addition to Barnsley have investments in a further five clubs across five different countries: Esbjerg FB in Denmark, AS Nancy in France, KV Oostende in Belgium, FC Thun in Switzerland and FC Den Bosch in the Netherlands.
Conway says that clubs’ ability to abide by laws and the consequences they face for breaking them is laxer in England in comparison to the other countries in which PMG work.
The EFL maintains that it has charged clubs who have breached the rules.
“It's a cruel sport. So we're operating against teams that are relegated from the Premier League that have eight, nine, 10 times our budget. We knew that going into it,” Conway told The Athletic’s In the Boardroom Podcast, sponsored by Lion Trust.
“The most surprising thing has been the lack of following rules by other clubs, be it Financial Fair Play (FFP), not paying bills.
“In other leagues that we operate there's more crackdown on that. And that's been surprising because we're competing and in a country that created the sport. So we thought that the enforcement would be better.”
Conway and his investment partners completed their takeover of Barnsley in December 2017. During their four years in English football, five fellow Championship sides have been handed points deductions for entering administration or failing to comply for the EFL’s profitability and sustainability rules; Reading, Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday, Wigan Athletic and Birmingham City.
While Sheffield Wednesday and Wigan dropped out of the second tier following their financial breaches, others sides have secured promotion and not been punished until years later.
In 2018, Leicester City and Queens Park Rangers both agreed settlements with the EFL following FFP disputes that occurred as the pair sealed promotion to the Premier League during the 2013-14 season. The EFL say that these clubs were fined under the rules in place.
Bournemouth were also fined £7.6 million for breaching FFP during their 2014-15 promotion-winning campaign.
Conway has called on the footballing authorities to clamp down on clubs who break financial regulations and reap the benefits of doing so to deter others from doing the same.
“The fundamental issue is it's a league of 72 teams and whenever we try to advocate for better enforcement a lot of other clubs in the Championship, they say: ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, we agree with it.’ But when it's time to vote, there's usually only one or two other clubs that actually vote for it.
“There has been a history of teams that haven't followed the rules in the Championship, get promoted and then you can't actually go after them until they get relegated again. So it's just like anything in life. Other people see that and say: ‘What do I have to lose?’
“We're not looking for any type of radical change, (just) basic enforcement of rules and stopping anti-competitive behaviour.”
