Ballots and FFP – What Darren Eales and Dan Ashworth said at last night’s fan event
Newcastle United last night held a talk-in with fans where they got to fire questions at club staff around pressing concerns.
After seeing Everton slapped with a 10-point deduction, fans asked Dan Ashworth about FFP concerns while Darren Eales faced questions about ticketing.
Dan Ashworth was asked why it seems like it's only Newcastle who are playing by the rules when it comes to FFP, or was it just a form of paranoia?
Why are Newcastle the only club taking FFP seriously?
From our perspective, it does feel like we're the only club taking it seriously and Dan Ashworth has now said why (via The Chronicle).
"The rules are clear and consistent for everyone in the Premier League. We're all bound by the same rules and regulations. What hasn't been clear up until now what the penalties will be.
"I can't speak for any other clubs but the independent panel from the Premier League have found Everton guilty of breaching FFP and have given them a severe penalty. They're the first club to be fined for breaching FFP so for all of us it was a bit of an 'Oh, ok, we weren't quite sure what the type of punishments were going to be'.
"But the rules have been fairly clear and consistent for a number of years now and they're the same for any club. The more money you generate from different sources, be it commercial, be it transfer fees, be it corporate hospitality, be it corporate hospitality, that gives you more money to spend on the pitch - or other areas I should say! In my world it's certainly on the pitch...
"You're allowed to lose a certain amount of money over a period of time. Effectively that's it. The more we can generate - the better the team does and the easier it is for Peter and his team to raise money. That gives us more to spend on the pitch."
Why are some fans always lucky in the ballot while others never win?
CEO, Darren Eales was faced with the unenviable task of wading through the issues surrounding match tickets and the much-despised 'ballot' system and how some people seem to win all the time while others are never lucky.
"This is exactly the type of issue we want to hear from the fans. We have the new fan board to be set up because if fans want to go back to the previous method, we'll go back to the previous method.
"We as a group want to listen to the fans on what fans say is the best way to commit. We listened and made a change, it means you won't always be successful in the current scheme but that was the way we went but we're open to hearing from supporters and coming to a consensus."
With the new Fan Advisory Board being set up, hopefully, fans will soon have more of a say on controversial topics like the ballot system which should help the club to avoid making these kinds of mistakes in the future.
