Online Reporter
ENGLISH Premier League football clubs are divided over whether to introduce a controversial new “salary cap” prior to next month’s vote on financial regulations, BBC Sport has been told.
The “top-to-bottom anchoring” model – or TBA – would restrict the amount any club can spend on player wages, agents and transfer fees to five times the income earned from broadcasting and prize money by the bottom club in the English top-flight.
The approach means that a cap would be imposed on clubs’ spending, regardless of their own income.
TBA is currently being trialled by the Premier League, alongside a “squad cost ratio” (SCR) system of financial control that allows clubs to spend up to a percentage of their total revenues on squad-related costs.
On November 21 the Premier League will meet and vote on whether to adopt either, or both, models, and replace the current Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) that allow losses of £105 million over a three-year reporting cycle.
Nine of the Premier League’s 20 clubs already have to comply with UEFA’s SCR rules as a result of qualifying for Europe, and some believe it makes sense to align the regulations. In order to encourage sustainability, UEFA permits participants in its competitions to spend up to 70 percent of their revenues on their squads, while the Premier League has said it would allow a more generous 85 percent.
However, BBC Sport has been told that a number of Premier League clubs would only vote for SCR to be implemented if it was accompanied by “anchoring”, so that those with the largest revenues did not get too far ahead of the rest, and competitive balance was protected.
This stance has been hardened by concern over additional money the top clubs are receiving from expanded European club competitions and the Club World Cup.
Last year 16 clubs voted to conduct detailed analysis of TBA, with only Manchester United, Manchester City and Aston Villa voting against.
All three were known to be concerned that being pinned to the revenue of the league’s bottom-placed club would risk putting them at a disadvantage compared to some of their European rivals, who only have to adhere to SCR rules.
At the time, United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said anchoring would “inhibit the top clubs in the Premier League, and the last thing you want is for the top clubs in the Premier League not to be able to compete with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain – that’s absurd”.
In the 2023-24 season, 20th-placed Sheffield United earned around £110m. So last season no top-flight club would have been able to spend more than a total of £550m on player wages, amortised transfer fees and agents if TBA had been in force. – BBC Sport.
