bluenine, this is what i can gather from your posts:
if we don't qualify for CL, it will be easy to continue to comply with FFP. however, the only way to reinforce the team and spend a lot of money while continuing to comply with uefa regulations is to make a really big sale. this can be a big hit to our squad quality. accounting aside, our losses will still be a massive issue and thohir will have to cover them as he has done over the past 3 years. if he wants to use "organic cashflows" and if he doesn't want to cover them himself, correct me if i'm wrong, but we'll have to make two really big sales.
if we qualify for CL this year (and this should also be valid for qualifying for CL next season in the last case), we will obviously be in compliance with FFP and our losses will be covered by CL revenue. there is the question of how much money we can spend on reinforcements. qualifying for CL once doesn't necessarily mean you will do it again especially if our competitors (napoli, roma, milan) reinforce. you're saying FFP would be easy to deal with even if we spend 100 mill. however, the money for another splash would have to come out of a big sale and thohir's pocket because CL revenue would be going towards our losses. if thohir doesn't want to sell key members of the team and he doesn't want to spend too much of his own money, then there are very reasonable questions re how we will improve in the short term. i don't believe this team is good enough nor does it have enough depth to cope with 50-60 games in a season.
it's normal when the future growth of an ambitious club is dependent on regularly qualifying for europe, but it's abnormal and a bit dangerous when the financial health of a club is dependent on qualifying for CL when they haven't been in that competition for 4 years..
What I am saying is:
1. If we don't qualify for CL, we will still meet the FFP criteria due to expiring contracts. But we may sell a big player (like Icardi) to fund another buying spree like this summer.
2. If we qualify for the CL, we may still sell someone like Icardi to fund transfers, but only to match cash flows. But in this case, we actually have a chance to become a profitable club as soon as next year!
Inter are are loss making club - assumed losses last year of €55m. Thohir must have covered that by reinvesting or debt, otherwise Inter would have been thrown out of Serie A. The idea is to reduce our losses to €30m this financial year, and further reduce to €15m next year. Presumably, Thohir will also cover those losses as well.
However, based on this summer, looks like Thohir does not want to invest more money into the club to fund transfers - i.e. only use our organic cash flows for transfers. So we are only allowed to spend what is in the bank account - this has nothing to do with what profits or losses we make as a business. Which explains the "Inter formula" which does not help us much from a FFP (or profit) point of view, but allows us to buy players without having the money in our bank account.
That is not the only way to do business, of course. If Inter make it to the CL, for example, Thohir may be willing to spend that CL money "in advance" with via giving Inter a short term loan (i.e. fuck organic cash flows). Most clubs do that. The profitability could still be the same.
What that article shows is that Thohir is working very seriously on our accounts - i.e. reducing our losses. If he manages to achieve these targets, then it will be an amazing transformation. We were in financial HELL when Thohir took over. Now there is light at the end of the tunnel. And because of this, we are not as dependent on CL revenues as we thought. There is no "bust", financially speaking.