Premier League to decide on future of PSR next month

A decision on whether to scrap the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) in favour of a new financial system is expected in November, chief executive Richard Masters has said.

Introduced in 2015-16, PSR allows clubs to lose up to £105m over three years but has been widely criticised for restricting investment. Both Everton and Nottingham Forest were docked points in the 2023-24 season for breaching the rules.

An alternative framework — the squad cost ratio (SCR) — is already being trialled on a shadow basis. Similar to UEFA’s financial rules, it caps spending on squad costs as a percentage of revenues. Nine Premier League clubs already comply with it through European competition, with Chelsea and Aston Villa fined in July for breaches.

Speaking at the Leaders sports conference in London, Masters said closer alignment with European regulation made sense, while still allowing English clubs more flexibility.
“UEFA’s system is set at 70%, ours would be 85% because we always want our clubs to have the ability to invest,” he said. “The Premier League has been built on the back of international capital flows. We don’t want that to be stifled.”

Masters acknowledged PSR “has its strengths and weaknesses” and that no system would be perfect, but said change was on the horizon:
“We have to keep these things balanced and continue the conversation with our clubs. That decision is coming up.”

The league is also trialling a second model known as “top to bottom anchoring” (TBA), which would cap spending as a multiple of the revenue earned by the lowest-placed club.