West Ham United have enjoyed great success in Europe over the past three seasons, and our Europa League campaign this term has proven to be very rewarding indeed.
The Europa League quarter-final clash with Bayer Leverkusen next month is a mouth-watering one for all West Ham fans, but win or lose, we’ve still reaped the rewards of reaching the last eight.
David Moyes will be really keen to prove a lot of people wrong by qualifying for the semi-finals of the continent’s second tier competition, and although fans and the media may not think it, I reckon we’ve actually got a fighting chance against Leverkusen.
The German side are on fire in the Bundesliga right now, and have a 10-point advantage over second placed Bayern Munich.
And whilst West Ham have had some disappointing results recently, we’re still sitting in seventh spot in the Premier League table.
However, it’s our run in Europe that is reaping great rewards so far this season…
West Ham handed eight-figure Europa League bonus
The Hammers are raking it in on the continent this term, and our exploits in the Europa League have provided us with a handsome financial reward.
This will undoubtedly help us to avoid flouting the strict new PSR rules and regulations.
Top football finance expert Kieran Maguire told Hammers News just last week how our form in Europe could come in handy:
“As far as the new rules are concerned for West Ham, I don’t think it will make a significant amount of difference .And the reason why I say that is that the owners weren’t particularly keen on taking the club close to the limit because they wanted to try to run it in a more sustainable manner. And clearly looking at my projections, they would not be in a fantastic position with regards to PSR. But my calculations are very crude because I’m looking at historic data and I’ve had to make a few assumptions. But I think actually the club might have more wiggle room. What I was trying to get was a general flavour for who are likely to be the winners and losers as far as the new rules are concerned. And remember West Ham this season are in the Europa League so have got the benefit of extra money coming in from that and they’ve got the sale of Declan Rice – that would go into the calculations as well.”
And now it has emerged, according to Sean Whetstone, that the Hammers have already pocketed £13.6 million from reaching the quarter-finals of the Europa League:
What is PSR
The Premier League has started using the term PSR or ‘Profit and Sustainability Rules’, rather than the FFP (Financial Fair Play) moniker.
It is designed to stop football clubs from spending more than they generate.
Clubs are not allowed to amass losses more than £105 million over a three season period. Teams like Everton and Nottingham Forest have recently fallen foul of these rules.
In my own personal opinion, I don’t believe that these rules are fair, and they cater for the bigger clubs, ensuring that the top six in the Premier League table will be a ‘closed shop’ so to speak.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City over the next few months.
However, that’s not our concern right now. The fact that West Ham have received £13 million from our Europa League conquests will certainly help us meet the new PSR criteria.
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