April 11, (THEWILL)- English Premier League clubs have unanimously agreed in principle to introduce new financial fair play regulations from next season at a meeting in London on Thursday.
The profitability and sustainability rules that have capped how much money clubs can spend over the last decade are set to be scrapped from the start of the 2025/2026 season and replaced with a similar “squad cost control” rule to the one UEFA adopted in 2022.
The new system, which must still be fully ratified at the EPL’s annual general meeting in June, will work as a shadow to the existing PSR regime next season. There were actually two votes at Thursday’s shareholders’ meeting. The first, which received unanimous backing, was to progress discussions on the finer details of the Premier League squad cost rules, with a view to adding the new regime to the rulebook this summer. The second, which was supported by a strong majority, was on how the new regulations would be phased in.
Under the proposed new regime, clubs will only be allowed to spend a set percentage of their annual turnover on the wage bill for the first team and its coaching staff, plus the amortised costs of their transfer fees and all agents’ fees. The current PSR guidelines — which see clubs allowed to lose a maximum of £105million over a rolling three-year accounting cycle — have seen Everton twice hit with points deductions this season with Nottingham Forest also penalised.
The EPL also said the clubs had “re-confirmed their commitment to securing a sustainably-funded financial agreement with the EFL”, although that itself remains subject to that new financial system. The squad cost rule limits a club’s spending on player and coach wages, transfers and agent fees to 70 per cent of their revenue.
A “significant” breach, UEFA says, comes in three forms: a club’s ratio is 20 per cent over the threshold, a club’s ratio is 10 per cent over the threshold and it has breached the limit in one of the past three seasons, or a club’s ratio is any amount over the threshold and it has breached the limit in two of the past three seasons.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
