What if we were at the dawn of a revolutionary project in the Premier League? According to information from The Times16 of the 20 first division clubs will vote next month on a proposal in favor of limiting spending on salaries and transfer fees. This new ceiling called “the anchor” must succeed the PSR (Profit and Sustainability Rules, the financial fair play of the Premier League) but it is causing a lot of noise in England. It calls into question the very model of the championship and should, if it is indeed adopted, open a new page. The clubs would then only be willing to spend 5 times the amounts received in terms of TV rights and competition bonuses by the latter.
This still leaves a tidy sum in reserve. For example, Sheffield United, bottom of the 2023/2024 season, received €125 million. With the new rule, clubs will have to limit their spending to €625 million over the entire season, total payroll and transfers combined (agent fees included). For the clubs playing to maintain, the impact will be limited but for the big guns in the championship, that changes everything. Liverpool will not be able to reproduce the last summer transfer window with around €500 million spent and a payroll estimated at more than €200 million.
Exemplary sanctions planned
The Premier League wants to set a staff cost ratio at 85% of a club's revenue, with the idea of ​​integrating “anchoring”. Sanctions are of course provided for in the event of non-compliance and they are intended to be particularly severe. This is also one of the points of concern for clubs. In the current proposal, the slightest excess would result in the loss of 6 points in the ranking, and another 1 additional point for each €7.5 million above the ceiling. Untenable for English clubs renowned for their record losses and regularly sanctioned in recent years for not having respected the PSR (Everton, Nottingham Forest).
However, the project was validated last March by 16 teams out of the 20. Manchester City, Manchester United and Aston Villa opposed it, and Chelsea abstained. They fear that this measure will lead to the decline of competition. The attractiveness of the Premier League would be undermined, and by domino effect, its competitiveness, losing its unofficial title of “best championship in the world”, says Jim Ratcliffe. “The last thing anyone wants is for the top Premier League clubs to be unable to compete with Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, ​​Bayern Munich and PSG. It's absurd. And if that's the case, the Premier League would cease to be the best championship in the world», Fears the co-owner of MU.
“How can this be in the interests of English football?»
With this measure, it is impossible to offer current salaries to championship stars like Erling Haaland or Florian Wirtz. “If we introduce these anchoring rules it could have a huge impact on the Premier League's ability to attract the best players in the worldadds a manager of an English club on condition of anonymity. How can this be in the interests of English football? The players' union has already announced its opposition to “anchoring” in the event of adoption on November 21, and is considering legal action against the institution already entangled in several disputes.
For those in favor of this measure, the Premier League must, on the contrary, gain balance and guarantee the famous uncertainty of sport, which will make it possible to maintain a high level of commercial, advertising and broadcasting rights revenues, even as the big teams multiply their profits thanks to the Champions League, and now the FIFA Club World Cup. The need for this law has never been greater. False, say the opponents, arguing that there have been 4 different champions over the last decade, that the club with the largest payroll has only been champion three times over the same period, and that 5 of the 8 championships won by City were won on the 38th day. This new model would force the Championship to follow suit.
