Barnsley FC among few clubs who don’t bend financial fair play rules, claims Paul Conway

Many topics were covered and some of the American’s criticism was withering. The Home Office were lambasted over a delay in processing the visas of the Reds’ recent signings Obbi Oulare and Aaron Leya Iseka, for instance. A ‘joke’ and ‘amateur hour’, Conway acerbically called it.

But when it comes to Conway’s biggest bone of contention, there is only one winner. Mention the phrase ‘Financial Fair Play’ and Conway’s apoplexy was clear.

A long outspoken critic, Conway – whose Barnsley side were in a perilous position in the Championship table – threatened to sue the English Football League back in May, 2020 if outstanding FFP cases in the division were not concluded in the 2019-20 season and if Birmingham, Derby or Sheffield Wednesday were allowed to start the following second-tier campaign on minus points because of fair play sanctions.

Perhaps, just perhaps, the financial ramifications of Covid-19 mean that some clubs are now being forced to become more responsible in terms of spending and adhering to FFP spending rules. There is hope.

Figures from the latest transfer window seem to bear this out. Eight of the Championship’s 24 clubs – including Huddersfield Town and Sheffield United – did not pay a transfer fee, with 126 players brought in either as free agents or loans.

For his part, Conway – whose club’s cash deals to bring in Oulare, Iseka and Josh Benson were largely offset by the big fee they received from West Brom for manager Valerien Ismael – is sceptical as to whether all clubs will continue to act sensibly, with fans and sponsors returning and football getting back to a semblance of normality.

He is also dubious as to whether there is a real and genuine appetite for change.

Conway said: “There’s probably seven or eight clubs in the Championship who were spending money in this window. A lot of clubs that aren’t were huge clubs who are simply out of cash.

“This is not the way to run a football club and I think the EFL are getting a little bit better on enforcement.

“We follow the rules, people who don’t should be punished as the more people are allowed to cheat, the more it hurts honest clubs like Barnsley.

“When bigger clubs are restricted on spending – whether violation or being out of cash – it helps clubs like us to balance the budget.

“It is all about the enforcement. It is funny because everyone in the Championship says: ‘Yes, yes, yes, we need better rules and fair play.’ But then when we have a vote on it, there’s only usually two Championship clubs who say yes, let’s do it...

“For all the other clubs, it’s ‘let’s work on our own scheme to skirt the rules.’ You can create all the rules you want, but unless you get better enforcement. For example in La Liga, you have 20 accountants who know the club’s financials often better than the clubs. So until you have that (here), it is all irrelevant…

“England is the worst place to operate. You have teams who cheat left and right….”

Barnsley’s feats last season in reaching the Championship play-offs were justifiably lauded. In it’s own way, it represented a bit of a ‘victory for the little man’.

One of just two Championship clubs who managed to balance their books ahead of the pandemic, the Oakwell outfit – with an admired and successful philosophy of bringing in emerging players for a modest outlay – showed what can be achieved by smart recruitment on both the playing and coaching front.

Yet success does not mean that Barnsley will push the boat out and significantly increase their transfer and wage budget.

Books will continue to be balanced and any additional outlay must come from any increased revenue earned. And breaking the bank to keep key players will never be an option.

Conway said: “It ruins the atmosphere in the clubhouse. The average Championship wage is £15,000 (per week), which is crazy. This is from clubs who are losing £15m to £20m.

“There is a really good atmosphere as it (Barnsley) is a young team who are all working within the confines of what we can do here. The goal is to grow that over time.

“But a part of that is fixed solidarity payments in the Championship, so the only way we can create additional revenue to grow our wage bill is more commercial improvements, more season ticket holders or more transfer revenue. That is basically it.

“All this (must) come together and we need to improve our revenue to grow our wages. We balance the budget and are not going to do stupid things like 85 per cent of the clubs do in this division. We are working our way up the right way.”

While Barnsley’s business model will not change and an era of big spending will not be ushered in, Conway believes that the club do have one advantage on their rivals that can be tapped into when it comes to recruitment. Barnsley are one of six clubs in the sporting portfolio of majority shareholders Pacific Media alongside Belgium First Division A club KV Oostende, Danish second tier outfit Esbjerg FB, French side Nancy and Swiss side FC Thun. Dutch second-tier outfit Den Bosch became the sixth club only yesterday.

The links have already aided Barnsley, in the view of Conway.

He commented: “One of advantages is that we are one of three clubs in the Championship who have foreign affiliate clubs. This is really important post-Brexit.

“If we did not have a successful Belgian club who we invested in a year ago, we would not have got these players (Oulare and Iseka). They both saw what we are building in their home country and both took reductions in wages to come to Barnsley.

“They are players we had identified for a while and I think everything came into fruition – partly through the performance of the club and they wanted to be here.

“Now, we just have to work on a better system with the Home Office to make sure FA (Football Association) approved players 
get in, in a reasonable period of time.

“It is very good for Barnsley in terms of incomings and outgoings. For the (young) players we (have) put on loan to Denmark, this is really important to Barnsley.

“You can randomly send players out on loan in England with different styles of play and they cannot manage it. It is not good for the players or Barnsley. Sending them to a professional league where a coach is playing a similar style of play is really the future.”