Premier League clubs are ready to bring in a new spending cap.
They have voted in favour of progressing on a new set of financial rules from the 2025/26 season tied to TV rights revenue to replace the current Profit and Sustainability Rules.
As with all Premier League votes, the rule change needed 14 of the 20 clubs to agree. Manchester United, Manchester City and Aston Villa are believed to have voted against the proposals while Chelsea abstained, but the idea was still passed at a meeting of the top flight clubs in London.
Prem bosses have been keen to stress that nothing has been agreed and the clubs only voted to explore the principle further at the Annual General Meeting in June. The new system is known as “anchoring” and is based on the idea of ensuring the top flight remains competitive. Clubs would not be stopped from paying a star player but original proposals were to ensure they could not pay more than four-and-a-half times what the bottom club earns from TV rights.
That means that, based on last season, clubs could only spend £466m on squad costs - which is four-and-a-half times what Southampton earned from TV rights - which includes wages, amortised transfer fees and agent costs.
Some big clubs fear that they will be at a disadvantage to European rivals while other teams insist it is necessary so the Premier League remains competitive. But some owners fear that State-owned clubs have got a huge financial advantage while the current PSR system needs a major overhaul, particularly after the controversies involving Everton and Nottingham Forest this season.
However, the players’ union, the Professional Footballers’ Association, have voiced concerns about what it could mean for their members in the long term.
The PFA said: “We will obviously wait to see further details of these specific proposals, but we have always been clear that we would oppose any measure that would place a ‘hard’ cap on player wages.
“There is an established process in place to ensure that proposals like this, which would directly impact our members, have to be properly consulted on.”
Earlier this month Premier League clubs unanimously voted in support of squad spending caps linked to revenue and making them a key principle in the new-look cost control system, similar to UEFA’s financial sustainability regulations.
But Manchester United made clear last week that they were against the new proposals and would be voting against them.
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish said last October that the top flight was looking at a cap on a club’s wage bill in order to keep the top-flight competitive.
“As far as competitive balance (is concerned), people need to be bold,” he said. “I think there is change afoot. UEFA’s squad-cost caps are one idea. Maybe something that is a bit more rigid than that, with a hard cap at the top, that doesn’t take turnover into account, where there are vagaries of how that turnover comes about.
“There are really positive conversations going on about it. We also have to be very careful because there are also unintended consequences. Hopefully we will get somewhere that will be beneficial, not just to the clubs in the Premier League but to the whole pyramid and their ability to compete.
“We are voting for our competitors to be able to do better and challenge us.”
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