Three of England’s leading player agencies, CAA Base, CAA Stellar and Key Sports Management, have threatened the Premier League with legal action if it implements a new salary cap, called “anchoring”reports The Times. According to them, this mechanism would artificially limit club spending on salaries, transfers and agents, and would constitute a violation of competition law. The agencies also denounce the fact that the Association of Football Agents was never consulted on this project.
This cap would be added to the squad cost ratio planned by the league and would limit expenses to 5 times the amount received by the last club in the ranking in bonuses and TV revenue. This measure, according to the agencies, could harm the competitiveness of English clubs against major European clubs and constitute an abuse of a dominant position. Faced with these concerns, the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), the oldest players’ union, plans to meet with the captains of the 20 clubs to assess the potential impact of these rules. “The aim of the League is to maintain the value of the Premier League, competitive balance and ensure clubs operate in a financially sustainable way. We are engaging in dialogue with our clubs, who will continue to evaluate the proposals and will have the opportunity to vote later this month”explained the Premier League recently. The agencies, however, insisted on a complete withdrawal of the proposals, threatening to launch their own legal action if they were adopted.
