‘Progress made’ - Premier League CEO drops major PSR update amid Newcastle United struggles
Premier League CEO Richard Masters has revealed clubs will “look again” at overhauling Profit and Sustainability Rules next season.
Newcastle United have been one of PSR’s most prominent detractors since the Saudi-backed takeover in October 2021. Introduced in 2015 as the Premier League’s version of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations, clubs are prohibited from losing £105million over a three-year period.
Critics argue that the measures are counterproductive and favour established clubs with larger historic revenues. No longer can a wealthy investor bankroll a team - like Manchester City in 2008 - from mediocrity to European powerhouses.
This has frustrated Newcastle fans who thought the Public Investment Fund’s takeover three-and-a-half years ago promised drastic investment. While the Magpies have improved, zero first-team signings in the past three transfer windows has heightened animosity towards PSR.
Premier League clubs voted last month to keep the current regulations while they work out how to introduce a new squad-cost-ratio system. Following a similar model to UEFA, the revamped method would ditch the three-year cycle and, instead, limit spending on wages and transfer fees relative to a club’s revenue.
Speaking at the Financial Times' Business of Football summit, top-flight chief Masters insisted “progress” has been made and another vote could take place next season. He said: "It's still a direction of travel. We have spent probably the last 18 months looking at squad-cost ratio as a concept to deal with two concerns with the current system.
"It's not that the current system doesn't work or is bad but, historically, the Premier League has followed UEFA. So whether you have clubs in Europe or the Premier League, they are following a common system. If you have got a system which regulates revenue and a system which regulates profits, they're different so that's an aspiration we think needs looking at.
"Secondly, the PSR system at the moment is a ‘look-back system’ over three years and the squad-cost ratio system that we have designed and is still in shadow as it were - we're monitoring clubs on that basis - delivers in-season essentially. It's an in-season test. So rather than over-spending over three years and then sanctions being in place the following year, it would happen in-season. Those are the two things the clubs, in particular, wanted to see addressed.
"We have made a lot of progress with clubs and our last meeting, which was a two-day meeting where we talked about future growth and the financial system. We agreed in all probability to PSR in 2025-26 and we will look again during the course of that season whether we're going to make the move to squad-cost ratio."