Nottingham Forest
Due to Forest and Everton’s FFP allegations, the Premier League boss hinted of a rule change.
Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, has hinted at a possible change to the Profit and Sustainability Regulations.
This comes just a day after Nottingham Forest were charged with a breach of financial rules. Everton were also charged with a second breach of PSR within a year
Forest and Everton have been referred to an independent commission for alleged breaches of PSR over the last three years. Everton’s new charge came just two months after they received a 10-point deduction for a previous breach.
The clubs have two weeks to respond to the charges, with a subsequent hearing by an independent commission to be concluded by April 8. Head coach Nuno Espirito Santo says everyone at Forest is “concerned” at being deemed to have breached the rules.
Masters spoke about the situation at a select committee hearing in Westminster on Tuesday, discussing the Premier League’s ‘new deal for football’. This aims to distribute wealth more fairly between the Premier League and the EFL.
The Premier League is set to hold one of its biannual meetings in February and June. The main topic for the upcoming meeting will be discussions about replacing PSR with the Squad Cost Ratio model introduced by UEFA over the past year, where wages to turnover is a key factor.
Speaking to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Masters said: “On the first day we will be talking about financial regulation. The current system, the PSR system, we are contemplating making some changes to that over time.
“We have some proposals out for consultation with our clubs about moving and aligning more with the UEFA system. UEFA has spent two years changing its financial regulations over the last two years from something called FFP to something called Squad Cost Ratio, which is a different calculation, more a wage to turnover calculation.
“Because over time we have historically aligned with UEFA because seven or eight of our clubs are in European competition, we need to decide whether that is an appropriate move for us, and how we do that, and when.
“At the moment we have the Profit and Sustainability Rules that provide an advantage to non-European clubs, at the moment. European clubs aren’t allowed to lose £105m over three years. We have tried to calibrate it so Premier League clubs in the bottom half of the league can aspire to be in Europe. In Europe this year we have Aston Villa and Brighton, and those are good things, we think.”
