Premier League clubs are set to consider a ‘luxury tax’ on overspending clubs at the end of the season as part of reforms to the current profit and sustainability rules.
Everton and Nottingham Forest have both been hit with points deductions, with both clubs contesting the penalties levied against them. Championship promotion contenders Leicester City are also potentially in hot water after announcing heavy losses in their doomed 2022/23 campaign.
That has led to a muddy picture towards the bottom of the table pending various hearings that could significantly alter the complexion of the relegation battle.
Premier League clubs to consider multiple FFP reform ideas
That relatively legitimate gripe, coupled with the rather entitled pearl-clutching prospect of no longer being able to splash squillions of pounds on the world’s best players (except for, like, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe and that, but shhh), has led Premier League clubs to conclude that an overhaul is necessary, with a smorgasbord of different ideas apparently set for debate in June.
Among the new proposals, write the Daily Mail, is the notion that instead of punishing exceeding agreed budgetary limits by doing something meaningful like meting out actual punishments, the most deep-pocketed clubs would instead be freed up to spend what they like in the proviso that they also pay an excess on top that could then be redistributed.
In fairness, the Mail add that ‘Premier League insiders’ (whatever that means) are ‘adamant that any proposal would still include an element of sporting sanction’.
Also up for debate is whether the proceeds from the American sport-inspired luxury tax would go to the poor impoverished Premier League clubs who stick by the rules, or into an emergency fund for those dastardly money-grubbing EFL clubs who have gone into serious financial trouble, the idiots.
Another idea is to set a wage cap as a multiple of whatever the lowest-spending club had spent on player salaries in the previous season. That raises the hilarious prospect of someone getting promoted and sandbagging the whole division by fielding a pub team for the season, thus ensuring Chelsea and Manchester City are only permitted to assemble a slightly more expensive pub team the next year. Take the hit, Coventry, you cowards, you’ll be legends forever.
Perhaps most sensibly, some Premier League clubs are said to favour a simple rule in line with UEFA’s own regulations, whereby clubs can only spend up to 70% of club revenue on wages, transfers and agent fees.
Clubs may also be asked to vote to reverse the ‘Newcastle rule’ that was narrowly passed in February, forbidding deals between multi-club groups with satellite clubs overseas.
Any proposals would need to be passed by two-thirds of voting clubs, with each of the 20 Premier League clubs getting a vote apiece but able to abstain if they so choose. If all 20 cast a vote, a minimum of 14 clubs must be in favour for regulations to change.
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