Premier League clubs set to discuss financial regulations - report
08 Aug 2012
English Premier League clubs are set to propose new regulations that aim to control rising player salaries, transfer fees and agent payments at a meeting next month, according to ESPN.
Clubs are set to meet on September 11 to address the financial situation of the Premier League. With the majority of the League’s clubs still operating on a loss-making basis, the issue of how to best utilise its huge new domestic broadcast deal is sure to be high on the agenda. The Premier League secured a huge 70% rise in the value of its domestic live rights in June, with BSkyB and BT splashing out a combined £3.018 billion in an agreement spanning three seasons from 2013-14 to 2015-16.
While the Premier League’s top clubs are now operating with UEFA’s new financial fair play (FFP) regulations in mind, the League itself has yet to instigate formal financial controls. The Football League in April revealed details of a FFP scheme that will see clubs promoted to the Premier League who have failed to adhere to the rules being hit with a ‘fair play tax’. The move will see English football’s second tier join Leagues One and Two in applying the rules from the beginning of the 2012-13 season. Clubs will now be required to provide accounts to the Football League by December 1 each year, illustrating whether they have stayed within acceptable boundaries on loss-making and shareholder equity investment. The intentions of Premier League clubs are unclear, but ESPN reports that the agenda of next month’s meeting could involve some form of salary cap.
Phillip Beard, chief executive of Queens Park Rangers, said: “The game is so competitive it tempts clubs to push their financial boundaries, so the challenge is how to manage them as each club is a different size and scale to the next. There are different forms of investment so the detail has to be very carefully worked out. But I agree that no one is immune to what has happened to Glasgow Rangers and Portsmouth, and it is not healthy if 13 or 14 clubs in the Premier League are not profitable, but you have to look at Manchester City who made a loss last season yet they are the wealthiest club in the world. The fact is that clubs want to manage their own business and not be told how to manage and run their business, and while we won’t get to where the States have no promotion or relegation, salary caps and a draft system…it is clear that everybody wants to find a route to run football in a sensible business way.”
