BBC Sport

Football clubs will have to prove financial health before...

All 116 clubs in England's top five divisions will have to prove they are financially healthy before being granted a licence allowing them to compete, under plans released by football's new watchdog.

It looks like the brothers have prepared Notts very well by improving the financial health of the club, so I don't think that our club will have any problems meeting the new criteria.

I think that in light of this new development with clubs having to prove their financial health other clubs will be looking at the Notts financial model very favourably.

Unfortunately, I don't think that the rich clubs will be affected because of the huge amounts of money that those clubs generate.

I don't think that this development will do anything to prevent the richest clubs dominating the Premier League, & with it the football pyramid.

I still believe that there should be a cap on transfers fees & players wages to try to prevent the richest clubs creaming the best players, thus reducing fair competition.

And stricter control of players agents...Notts must have paid out a bob or 2 in agents fees at the seasons start......the good thing is the payments to agents is published..!°°!!!!!!

It's a step in the right direction, but the proof of the pudding wil be in the eating.

I've had a taste of this in Germany. Sometimes licenses are only granted subject to certain conditions, so if a club's crowd forecasts are too optimistic, they'll be told to lower their budget. Sponsorship agreements are also looked at. Clubs that sail close to the wind or don't submit their documentation on time have been relegated multiple divisions, but others have still managed to slip through the net and go belly-up mid-season.

Overall I don't think more oversight is a bad thing (but get ready for club owners blaming the IFR for budget cuts or demotions). Possibly most importantly, it's there now, a precedent has been set and it can be beefed up in the future to hopefully tackle some of English football's structural issues.