The Premier League are looking at updating the PSR (Profitability, Sustainability Rules), which have been in effect for about 10 years now, and you would think at least the financial limitations should change to keep up with the inflation of transfer prices in football.
There was a Premier League meeting held within the last week or so when representatives of the 20 Premier League clubs met with PL CEO Richard Masters.
The current rules are that over three years Premier League clubs are allowed to lose only £105M, and of course this season Everton were docked 10 points for not keeping to that particular rule.
Everton are 3rd bottom of the league now with 19 points from their 24 games, following the deduction: without the deduction they would be in 13th place.
Richard Masters told the Premier League club’s representatives the PL would like to move to UEFA’s new squad cost model (SCM), which limits spending on wages, transfers, and agents’ fees to around 70% of a club’s revenues.
Kieran Maguire is an expert on football finances and he wrote the book The Price of Football, and he had this to say to the BBC:
“Any fan of a club who is aspirational, ambitious, and has had new owners come in over the last decade – we’re talking Everton, Aston Villa, Newcastle United and so on.”
“They will say, ‘We’re getting a bit of a raw deal here because the rules didn’t apply to Chelsea and Manchester City.” “When they were introduced in 2013, it was based on 2013 prices.”
“We talk about the Premier League making decisions, but the decisions are made by the executives so there are 20 shareholders of the Premier League who are the 20 clubs.”
“They have had the opportunity over the last decade to change the numbers and, for whatever reason, they have chosen not to do so.”
“Everybody operates in their own self-interest and it could be for some of the smaller clubs – let’s say Crystal Palace – that you don’t want that limit to increase because you can’t afford to spend more money so therefore you would vote to keep it at £105M.”
“The big clubs who have already got a sporting advantage, because they have got so much money coming in, they don’t want that £105M because they don’t want Everton or Newcastle or Aston Villa to become a threat to take away the most precious thing in the Premier League.”
“That’s a qualification for the Champions League because the Champions League is worth so much more money.”
“Everybody is acting in their own self-interest so there are probably three or four clubs for whom index thinking would have worked really well and, from a level playing field point of view, would have been the appropriate treatment.”
“But the other clubs are acting in their own self-interest and we have not had this progressed.”
Any increase in what Premier League clubs can spend would be good for Newcastle, because we are not short of money from the PIF.
But we are limited currently by the current PSR rules which is why we decided not to spend big money last month in the January transfer market.
Hopefully we can have a good summer trnsfer window.
The big money in European football is made through qualifying for the Champions League and it looks like Newcastle will not be able to qualify for that this season.
Premier League Table 2023-2024
| Position | Team | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | GD | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Tottenham | 38 | 20 | 12 | 6 | 13 | 66 |
| 6 | Chelsea | 38 | 18 | 11 | 9 | 14 | 63 |
| 7 | Newcastle | 38 | 18 | 14 | 6 | 23 | 60 |
| 8 | Man United | 38 | 18 | 14 | 6 | -1 | 60 |
| 9 | West Ham | 38 | 14 | 13 | 10 | -14 | 52 |
We are currently 11 points behind 4th placed Spurs in the league table.
What do you think?
187 comments so far
Munster Mag
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:01 PM
Comment #1Candy from a kid…
IrishRob
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:01 PM
Comment #2First
IrishRob
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:02 PM
Comment #3At least its you Munster lol
onmeedsun
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:04 PM
Comment #4My first 1st
onmeedsun
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:04 PM
Comment #5Bollocks you Irish boys!
IrishRob
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:06 PM
Comment #6Onmeed that was just plain sloppy tbf. You had ample time to check if you were slipping up there or not.
onmeedsun
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:11 PM
Comment #7Limiting player costs to 70% of turnover will guarantee owners a profit most seasons as non playing costs will be less than 30% of most clubs turnover. Capital spend on stadia and training grounds would then be on top, but would generate increased revenues in due course. But it would mean no club could invest ahead of expected turnover growth, which is what the £105m of losses does. So new owners would be able to invest in the playing squad above their 70%. So it’s purely a turnover game, but how do you grow turnover when you can’t invest in your squad to push your club up the league, to a position where you could attract more commercial revenue. All these rules are to stop anyone spoiling the party of the elite. Anti competitive.
onmeedsun
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:12 PM
Comment #8Irish
Ask my missus, my timing has never been good!
IrishRob
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:16 PM
Comment #9Lol, says every man ever tbf.
Transfer Sage
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:20 PM
Comment #10With fouls, handballs, VAR, etc I just don’t understand the excuse of things being a subjective decision. It just doesn’t wash.
As much as it’s not as simple as a line call, there are rules and then additional guidelines to support those rules. Referees regularly meet to discuss these things and to calibrate their views.
Where there is subjectivity, it shouldn’t end up a 50/50 call as often as it does. To me that screams that either the rules and guidelines aren’t clear enough or too vague, that there is no real calibration going on, or that the referees are totally inept.
If everything is set up correctly, the level of disagreement on decisions amongst refs (not pundits who don’t keep up to date with rules) should be in the 5% mark. It shouldn’t be a lottery for us every time a player goes down in the box or a ball hits a hand.
Munster Mag
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:24 PM
Comment #11Pug, 5th? Tsk! 🙂
Munster Mag
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:25 PM
Comment #12Onmeed, sorry, not Pug!
JaveaToon
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:27 PM
Comment #13Onmeedson….That’s how I see it, whichever of the rules they use it’s going to protect the elite one way or the other. If we change to the Uefa model I’m guessing the elite just carry on as they were as I’d have thought they’d have pretty much been complying (in theory) with those rules anyway. Our commercial revenue is growing rapidly but still won’t be closing up on the 6 or even the likes of West Ham as quickly as we’d like as their revenue is also growing, even if not as quickly as ours(percentage wise at least). Without knowing the figures I’d guess if our revenue grew 20% in a year the likes of City would only need to grow 5% to keep the gap the same in pounds. Percentages just an example without knowing the real figures but you get my drift…Unless my thinking is bollox in which case you won’t. Lol.
How are the likes of Luton, Bournemouth etc ever supposed to get to even mid table consistently with what I’m assuming will always be a very limited commercial income? How’s a newly promoted team supposed to come up and give themselves a fighting chance of survival?
I’ve no idea what the solution is but there has to be a better way than the current one and the Uefa one.
JaveaToon
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:35 PM
Comment #14TS… I agree, unfortunately players are much better at deceiving officials than they used to be, long gone are the days of the Steven Taylor sniper shot, when it was easy to spot a cheat. Now VAR should be able to make sense of it but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be able to, at least some of the time anyway.
Personally I prefer it the way it was, sometimes a ref fooked up, sometimes a lino did but at least when you celebrated a goal and the flag didn’t go up and/or the whistle didn’t go no one was gonna take joy that away from you. Ahhhh the good old days.
Sir Pugalot, the Dutch Bulldog
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:36 PM
Comment #15JaveaToon
Feb 13, 2024 at 1:40 PM
Comment #127
How about we all agree that anyone thinks it wasn’t a pen has a pro Newcastle bias, anyone who thinks it was has an anti Newcastle bias? Simples!! ? ?
2
IrishRob
Feb 13, 2024 at 1:55 PM
Comment #128
Im in the middle.
Prime Irish. Good one. I nearly smiled 🙂 doh!
Essex Geordie Bill
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:44 PM
Comment #16Re. Billings I reckon he is a lot better than he is getting credit for and will be a great signing.
Essex Geordie Bill
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:47 PM
Comment #17Blatant dive and kick at Dubs, should have been a red card, although I might have a slight Toon bias! 🙂
Transfer Sage
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:53 PM
Comment #18Javea
I think the problem that IFAB has given referees is that they are too soft now.
Sure, nobody wants to see horror tackles. Those that can easily break legs, knees, ankles, etc… anything dangerous and malicious should rightly be given a red card.
Where they have a problem is that they have made even minimal contact a possible foul. The best way I can explain this is to compare a clash of knees/legs to a shoulder barge. It’s generally accepted even now that going shoulder to shoulder, with one player being stronger, isn’t a foul. Unless the force is excessive or there is blatantly no attempt to play the ball. Yet it seems if that contact is knee to knee, or a slight touch to the foot, it’s usually given. I accept there is more an impact on balance if contact with legs but it’s still not a given, we all know that from playing ourselves and we haven’t got half the strength or balance of a pro footballer.
You then get the situation where you have incidents like the Forrest non-pen. Plenty of pundits and even ex refs said it was a foul. But for anyone watching, you can see it was a minor coming together and the Forrest player made no attempt at all to try and keep his balance. This is partly because the incentive is to go down to get the pen but still, he didn’t even try to properly right the contact.
Now compare this to the 90s when you had a higher threshold for fouls. Players would shrug others off, stay on their feet even if not perfectly balanced, and still try and get shots away. I understand what they are trying to do, favour attacking football, but it then gets them into these situation where everyone who’s played knows that contact didn’t knock him over, but it has to be given by the letter of the law…or not then criticised for inconsistency. It’s a mess of IFABs own making.
Transfer Sage
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:54 PM
Comment #19EGB
Billings is perfectly fine but is he better than Joelinton, Bruno, Tonali or Willock? Probably not? Does he offer much more than Longstaff? Do we want Anderson or Miley getting less minutes in cups or from the bench because of him? Not for me.
That’s why I think it makes no sense as a signing.
onmeedsun
Feb 13, 2024 at 2:57 PM
Comment #20Javea
My mate has a flat in Javea.
Beautiful walk along the sea front with some great little restaurants.
The PSR bollocks.
Spurs revenue is about double our £250m.
We may have closed that gap a bit this season with CL monies, but the gap not likely to close next season as well miss the CL monies, with the Addidas monies partially offsetting that. Spurs likely to get CL monies.
It’s a huge gap.
Enables them to have a wage bill double ours.
So we have to bridge that revenue gap.
New ground is one way, with naming rights and increased capacity, but that will only go part way.
If our owners had been allowed to invest say another £200m in players, then we could have cemented top 4, which would then have enabled us to grow those commercial revenues quicker.
As the system is designed for growth to be slow, then we’ll have to churn our current players before we get where we want to be.
It’s anti competitive.
onmeedsun
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:00 PM
Comment #21Sage
Onana would be the perfect signing as what we need in midfield is more legs and ball winning ability. Would give Eddie more balanced options. A Young fit striker, a rapid right footed CB and a left back if Hall is not the answer. Job done.
Hibbit
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:07 PM
Comment #22if Billings is the answer whats the question ??
good honest pro and a tidy player but absolutely no improvement on any of our current midfield players,
JaveaToon
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:17 PM
Comment #23TS…Totally agree with that. It’s not just fouls but offsides too, we all want to see more goals yet they p!ss about for 5 minutes drawing lines then someone’s given offside cos they’re wearing a size bigger football boot…assuming var manage to freeze on the exact frame when the ball was passed.
Essex Geordie Bill
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:22 PM
Comment #24Wonder what the PIF would spend without restrictions?
Adamn_92
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:23 PM
Comment #25Agree about Billing. Nothing against him as a player, he’s fine.
But, next season we’ll have Bruno, Joelinton, Willock, Anderson, Longstaff, Tonali and Miley.
Is Billing better than any of those? No, I don’t think so. It’s not adding depth as 7 platers for 3 positions is plenty of depth as it is, we just got done in with injuries this season.
If anything, we should look to improve upon those players, so then the likes of Longstaff, Miley and Anderson can be our depth and rotation options.
Transfer Sage
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:25 PM
Comment #26Onmeedsun
I think he’s a great option and a realistic one for where we are too. I also like Joao Palhinha from Fulham. Then we’ve been linked with Ederson from Atalanta.
I genuinely don’t mind who we get, but they need to be more than the old fashioned number 6 like Tiote was for us. They need to be more in the mould of Rodri, where they can take the ball in tight spaces and start attacks, but also be disciplined, know when to sit and when to get forward and just control the game.
I’ve said this over the road but I think if we get a proper 6 in, a player equally adept at playing right or central forward (think what Isak can do on the left, or a Darwin Nunez at Liverpool) and a pacey CB…. we could really move to the next level.
Adamn_92
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:26 PM
Comment #27EGB
Billing lost his starting place in the current Bournemouth side.
He’s an ok player but that alone tells you he isn’t exactly the quality we need, either for our first 11 or the ‘quality in depth’ we desire.
JaveaToon
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:27 PM
Comment #28Onmeedsun…Yeah it’s going to take a long time to bridge that gap, the problem being you need CL football to get the maximum revenues but need to spend 100’s of millions to get CL footy consistently. I don’t want to go out and buy a team of superstars but I’d like a sporting chance of being able to compete fairly. Football is about hope and dreams, something the powers that be seem to want to stifle for those of us not at the top table.
Yeah Javea’s great, 3 very distinct areas. You have the Arenal with the sandy beach, the port area and then the old town. Loads of great restaurants in all of them. Rarely had a bad meal here.
Then up where we are you have the cliffs, coves, sea caves…hell on earth tbh 😆
JaveaToon
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:28 PM
Comment #29Adam… How was your night out in “sleepy” Dereham?
Essex Geordie Bill
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:29 PM
Comment #30BDB has been good for us, but there are times when he looks as if he is running in treacle, .a pacy cb is a must!
Transfer Sage
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:30 PM
Comment #31Javea
The offside one is tricky as no matter where you decide to draw the line, there will always be instances where a player is a toe offside.
eg. if we are going for clear daylight, there will be lines drawn to show if his trailing foot is behind the defenders toe or not.
What they need to do is get on with the semi-automated offsides which were used in the world cup and in some other leagues. Chip in the ball, players all mapped with cameras, we get a nice 3D image of where everyone is quickly and then we can move on or not.
Fat Basta*d
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:32 PM
Comment #32What we need is a pure destroyer in midfield to win balls for us. I’ll go for Kessie
Adamn_92
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:32 PM
Comment #33Javea
Had to miss it in the end, been horrificly ill since last Wednesday.
Maybe another time…….maybe 🙂
Fat Basta*d
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:33 PM
Comment #34Simon,,
Why have you got my pic as your screensaver? Do you want to lick my belly button? You know Im dead sexy 😀
Raj of Hailsley
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:41 PM
Comment #35Someone kicking off because we are signing Billing and the reason why, sounded quite wound up by it! How did the signing of Phillips go, it didn’t, it was pure Horlicks.
JaveaToon
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:42 PM
Comment #36TS…Yeah wouldn’t mind the semi automated system, removes a lot, if not all of the human error element and as you say is much quicker. I wonder if any muscle injuries can be attributed to standing around waiting for var decisions? I think there would certainly be some if sinbins are introduced.
JaveaToon
Feb 13, 2024 at 3:43 PM
Comment #37Adam…Probably nerves, worrying if you can handle such a wild night out 😆
Davas
Feb 13, 2024 at 4:07 PM
Comment #38So what happens if a club’s salaries are up to 70% of turnover, which is augmented by qualifying for the ecl for a couple of seasons, but then don’t qualify and their turnover takes enough of a hit so that salaries are, say, 75%, of turnover. Do they get points deduction, fined, have to sell players thus making it harder to recover to their previous turnover?
JaveaToon
Feb 13, 2024 at 4:13 PM
Comment #39Davas…Good question but I have no idea to the answer.
Transfer Sage
Feb 13, 2024 at 4:14 PM
Comment #40Javea
It’s difficult as once you have VAR, you can’t rush the decision or further mistakes are made… as seen in the Liverpool Tottenham game this season. So it needs to take what it takes, but that’s rubbish for fans at home and in the stands. It’s not perfect but it would be better to have the audio there so at least we can hear them saying the reason behind something being overturned or not.
I was against this idea initially but I do think going back to the challenge system in cricket or tennis is possibly the idea. You get one challenge per game, if you are successful you keep it, if not you lose it. That way VAR will be there to stop the howlers and if you choose to waste it on a speculative effort, you only have yourself to blame later on.