The Premier League’s Financial Rules Protect The Big Six – And Newcastle And Aston Villa Are Paying The Price

Richard Master's pompous interview and the answers he gave when questioned about Man City and Chelsea breaking the financial rules, and his replies to the effect those rules are having on protecting the Big Six, sparked a heated blog reaction yesterday.

Those rules have had a direct effect on the squads of Newcastle and Aston Villa - both clubs who were challenging for top six places and the CL - being ripped apart.

What is even more galling is that the top players who have left have been hoovered up by those same Big Six clubs widening the gap between the 'have's and have not's',

Two tier PL that crushes ambition

The Premier League is now heading for a 'two tier' league where every season the same six clubs compete in their mini league for the title, domestic cups and CL places and the rest are left to fight it out for 7th place and the scraps left in the Big Six trails.

That is where these ludicrous and deeply unfair financial rules have taken football in this country - where ambition is now crushed and punished and wealthy owners willing to spend are forced to keep their hands in their pockets and twiddle their thumbs.

The rules were brought in to prevent clubs overspending and facing financial ruin; now they are doing the exact opposite. Those rules have simply ring fenced an elite cartel.

Take PIF. How can a company worth billions, if not a trillion or two, possibly overspend??

We have owners with the financial resources and ambition to build Newcastle into one of Europe’s leading clubs.

We have a packed 52,000-seat stadium every week, an enormous fanbase, Champions League ambitions and a club whose commercial potential remains huge.

Yet PIF cannot simply invest the money required to accelerate that growth.

In effect PIF can afford to buy and run a Ferrari but are stuck with ambling around in Del Boy's Reliant. You might laugh... but it's not far from reality.

And we are not alone.

Aston Villa have experienced many of the same frustrations after breaking into the established elite and attempting to stay there.

Those rules will also make any other mega wealthy investors with ambitions to buy a PL club realise that, no matter how much they are prepared to gamble on success, the rules will limit them to the equivalent of five quid each way.

So guess what?

Those mega wealthy investors will instead bet big on the favourites just as a consortium involving Jeff Bezos already has - and bought 30% of Liverpool for £1.65 billion.

That should concern every supporter outside the traditional Big Six.

The message is; you have practically no chance of attracting that mega wealthy owner you've dreamed of.

The PL - as Richard Masters said in his interview - is virtually saying; accept what you have and be grateful for it. Know your place and stay there.

The rules aren't fit for purpose

Clubs shouldn't be allowed to borrow recklessly or gamble with their futures.

As always, the owners walk away, and it's the fans who suffer the devastation.

Leeds and QPR are two examples of reckless borrowing by three bob owners that nearly led to both clubs going to the wall.

But genuine owner investment is far different from reckless borrowing..

If owners can prove the money exists and inject it as equity rather than loading debt onto the club, why shouldn't they have greater freedom to invest?

You have to provide proof of funds to buy a house, so why can't the PL accept proof of funds to allow the likes of PIF to buy players and pay wages?

The current farce is killing ambition and murdering the clubs who have tried it.

Something HAS to be done or it will soon kill competitive PL football.

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