The rationale for this deal structure is as follows:
1. FFP neutral loan: The 5m loan fee is canceled out by the transfer fee (profit) we get from selling Sala for 5m.
2. Option to buy: The fact that we are getting an option to buy for 20m instead of an obligation means that we want to check out Sensi to see if he can adapt to play for a bigger club. This has little to do with FFP, because if we had paid 25m cash now our amortisation cost for this year would have been 5m which is equal to the loan fee. So there is no difference from an FFP point of view, apart from the fact that we now can decide not to take our option.
Its a smart way to do business. Try the product before you buy.
As cafe points out, the Sala fee is being booked for FY 18/19, not 19/20, so it doesnt negate the Sensi transfer that will be happening 19/20.
Like I said above, only in a case of a 5 year contract with a 5+20m fee is it irrelevant. Anything more than that (fee wise) or less than that (contract wise), we are booking less CapEx this year, but more in future seasons.
The other aspect is that recent FFP changes mean any loan+obligation is considered as a full transfer in the season it happened, anyway. That's because of clubs like us using loan+obligation to get around our compliance.
So, yes, it is quite strongly because of FFP.
Let's assume its a 5 year contract:
5mil fee now with 25mil over 4 years = 6.25 per year over 4 years
30mil now over 5 years = 6mil a year
We're slightly reducing our costs this year (And, as ever, if he does sign outright for us, we'd probably extend his contract anyway to decrease impact)