Tuesday was judgement day in the Premier League, with disciplinary charges pending for any clubs who had broken Profit and Sustainability rules.
Everton and Nottingham Forest felt the wrath of top-flight bosses for breaking the league’s rules, with The Toffees pinged with points deduction in the previous two seasons, being deducted six and two points respectively, while Forest lost four in the 23/24 season.
But there was a surprise result today, with all 20 clubs avoiding any charges for recording losses of more than £105million over the period between the 2021/22 and 2023/24 seasons.
Leicester City were the closest to the line – and could still face problems, due to an ongoing Premier League appeal over a previous decision.
Follow all of that – and more – by reading Mirror Football’s live reporting below…
That just about covers everything for today.
Thanks for reading.
None of the 20 Premier League clubs have fallen foul of the Profit and Sustainability Rules this time around, but the impact is clear to see.
The January transfer window is open at the moment, but the age of panic buying mid-season are behind us. Clubs have to be much more careful about how they spend their money, with the threat of points deductions working to curb irresponsible spending.
Like all the other Premier League sides, Manchester United have escaped any punishments for Profit and Sustainability Rules.
But it is clear that under Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ownership that there is a focus on reducing costs. United have the benefit of a huge turnover, due to the club’s size, but they have been spending lots too.
Ratcliffe has made the entire squad available for transfer – if big offers come in – while cutting 250 jobs, including Sir Alex Ferguson’s ambassadorial role.
The concerns are understandable. United have posted losses before tax of £312.9million over the past three seasons and a recent report showed they have racked up a staggering net spend of €1.3bn (£1.08bn) on transfers since 2015, more than any other club in the world. It is belt-tightening time.
Leicester have lost five Premier League matches in a row and things would’ve been even worse today, had the Premier League charged them with PSR breaches.
That isn’t the case – for now – and they can focus on tomrrow’s match against Crystal Palace at the King Power Stadium. Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side are at risk of being cut adrift with Southampton at the bottom. They are on 14 points, two behind Ipswich and Wolves, and three behind Everton.
Both Chelsea and Nottingham Forest can celebrate their avoidance of any points deductions this evening as the Premier League returns.
Forest host Liverpool at the City Ground at 8pm and will be confident of toppling the league leaders, having beaten them at Anfield earlier in the season. Victory would send Nuno Espirito Santo’s side second and within three points of Liverpool.
Chelsea, meanwhile, need to put an end of a sticky spell of form when they host Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge at 7.30pm. Having won five in a row, Enzo Maresca’s side are now without a win in four league games.
So, with no points deductions it’s as you were in the Premier League table for now.
That means Leicester remain in 19th place, two points from safety. Everton are 16th with a game in hand on their rivals, ahead of David Moyes’ first game in charge against Aston Villa tomorrow.
At the other end of the table, Nottingham Forest are third, level on 40 points with Arsenal, with Chelsea in fourth and Newcastle in fifth.
Chelsea may have played a significant role in Leicester avoiding a PSR breach for the current period.
The Blues signed Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall for £30million and paid around £10m in compensation to hire Enzo Maresca and his staff in June. Those payments are understood to have been included in the 2023/24 accounting period.
Dewsbury-Hall is already being linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge, having not started a single Premier League game this season and featured mainly in the Conference League and Carabao Cup. Not that Leicester will care.
Leicester recorded a pre-tax losses of £89.7million for the 2022/23 season and £92.5m for 2021/22.
Their accounts for 2023/24 are yet to be announced. But, as mentioned earlier, they are not out of the woods yet. The Premier League has appealed the decision that went the Foxes’ way in September for the breach for the accountancy year of 2023, when Leicester were relegated.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side are permitted to lose £83m for the three-year accounting period ending in 2023/24 – a period in which they spent two seasons in the Premier League and one in the Championship.
The English Football League placed a registration embargo on Leicester last season after stating that they were projected to be in breach for the three-year cycle ending with the 2023/24 season.
Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive, says that clubs compete with each other off the pitch as well as on it – and has no problem with so-called ‘creative accountancy’.
“There is a collective spirit in the Premier League that still exists, absolutely,” he told reporters in August. “It is a competition, so it is set up for everyone to compete with each other. Clubs compete with each other on the pitch, off the pitch, in sponsorship markets, with investment, all the time.
“Everyone is trying to find an angle, whether it be signing a player, finding a way to be better in the Premier League, and I think that is a great thing. When it comes to rule breaching, I don’t believe in that as you can imagine, and we will deal with that, but I do think there’s a collective spirit.”
So, no charges for Premier League clubs, who have all abided by the Profit and Sustainability Rules.
One of the obvious ways they have done so is by selling homegrown players between each other, often for eye-catching prices, to balance the books. While some have questioned the ethics of such a practice, the man in charge doesn’t mind how clubs comply, as long as they comply.
I went to a media briefing with Premier League chief Richard Masters in August, where he said: “The rules are well understood and so I wouldn’t describe these as ‘loopholes’, they’re understood and permitted within the rules. Our job is to ensure they comply with the letter of the rules.
“Obviously clubs have different spending plans over a three-year period. We care less about that plan and more about that eventually everyone complies with the rules. There are different ways of achieving the same thing, which is being within the limit.”
All 20 Premier League clubs have escaped charges from the league over Profit and Sustainability breaches.
Last season saw Everton and Nottingham Forest hit with points deductions for straying beyond the accepted high water mark of £105million in losses over three years, but all the clubs have avoided punishment this time around.
So, it’s good news for Leicester City right now, but they are not yet out of the woods.
That is because a Premier League appeal is still going on behind the scenes relating to a previous decision. Leicester won the initial case in September by arguing that the Premier League did not have the jurisdiction over the 2022/23 campaign because they were relegated to the Championship.
The Premier League appealed that decision and the case is still ongoing.
The Premier League have said in a statement: “Issues as to the jurisdiction of the Premier League over Leicester City Football Club in relation to PSR compliance are currently the subject of confidential arbitration proceedings.
“Accordingly, neither the league nor the club will make any further comment at this stage about any aspect of the club’s compliance or otherwise with any of the PSR or related rules, save to say that no complaint has been brought against Leicester by the league for any breach of the PSRs for the period ending Season 2023-24.”
Great news for Ruud van Nistelrooy and his Leicester City players.
Leicester have received word that they will not be facing any charges for Profit and Sustainability breaches.
They are currently 19th in the Premier League, two points from safety, after five straight league defeats, so really couldn’t afford a points deduction.
Bournemouth and Ipswich Town are two other clubs – besides the others previously mentioned below – that could be crossing their fingers this morning.
That is less because they have spent beyond their means and more because they are smaller clubs with lower turnovers.
The Cherries have recruited well in the past few seasons and have to be more careful than their rivals. Meanwhile, Ipswich, as a newly-promoted side, have a smaller PSR loss budget of £39m for the past three years.
Newcastle have been hindered more than most clubs by the Profit and Sustainability Rules, with their owners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, not allowed to splash as much cash as they’d hoped.
They have still lost around £150million before tax over the past few years and only complied with PSR rules by flogging homegrown players just before the summer transfer deadline.
Elliot Anderson went to Nottingham Forest, Yankuba Minteh to Brighton. Problem solved, but reluctantly.
“I felt really uncomfortable in the summer when we were forced to make sales of two really talented young players in Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh, against our will really for financial reasons,” Eddie Howe said on Simon Jordan’s podcast Up Front last month.
“One was an academy product we’d invested in since he joined the club as a young lad. You just think, ‘why are we doing this? This doesn’t feel right’. I understand the rules to a degree. I understand the concept but I think how it is fundamentally working at the moment is not right.”
Everton have been through a lot recently.
Sean Dyche is gone. David Moyes is back. Farhad Moshiri is gone. The Friedkin Group are in. So the last thing they want is a points deduction, with the club hovering one point above the relegation zone.
Thankfully for the new owners, the old ones did address the PSR concerns by selling a glut of homegrown players to balance the books. Alex Iwobi, Lewis Dobbin and Demarai Gray have all been sold in recent windows for accounting reasons and the club are confident they will be fine today.
Nottingham Forest had four points taken off them last season due to Profit and Sustainability Rule breaches.
Forest exceeded their permitted losses by £34.5m in the assessment period ending with the 2022-23 season. They admitted the breach but appealed the decision anyway. Although the appeal was unsuccessful, they stayed up – and just look at them now!
Nuno Espirito Santo has led the team to third in the Premier League and will obviously be desperate to avoid another deduction. The good news is that it is considered unlikely.
The sale of Brennan Johnson to Tottenham for £47.5million in September 2023 was a huge piece of business for Forest because he counts as pure profit for PSR as a homegrown player.
Chelsea, as we all know, work differently to other Premier League sides, taking a unique approach to player recruitment since Todd Boehly and Co took charge.
They have worked to trim their gigantic squad over the past year or so but have still had to use some accountancy tactics to comply with PSR.
In September, the Premier League cleared their decision to sell two hotels at Stamford Bridge for £76.5m to another company in their group, BlueCo 22, while the same company was also the recipient of their women’s side two days before the last set of accounts were due in June.
That sale could come under scrutiny over whether the women’s side was deemed fair market value. We shall see later on today.
It seems pretty unthinkable, but United are one of the clubs that *could* be at risk today.
Now the fact the Red Devils have published their accounts already, there is a certain confidence that they should be on the right side of the line.
But a pre tax loss of £131m last season leaves them in a precarious position. Now some of that is attributed to the takeover by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, which has gone swimmingly well both on and off the pitch….
Financial experts reckon they could – just about – fly under the radar, by a figure as little (in football terms) £2m. Ratcliffe has gone heavy on the cost-cutting measures, so will expect to get all the clear.
But nevertheless, there may be some nerves at Old Trafford today.
We can start with the most likely to fall foul of the regulations, Leicester City.
The Foxes were charged by Prem bosses for the period between 2020-23, but the case was never heard. They managed to sidestep punishment as when they submitted their accounts they were in the Championship after relegation.
During that hearing it did emerge that Leicester had been charged with a breach of £24.4m, leaving them in a difficult position to comply this time around.
It’s made more difficult by the fact their threshold is actually lower than most, at £83m, due to their relegation from the top flight at the end of the 2022/23 campaign.
Bosses at the King Power Stadium have expressed confidence they will comply, with Leicester ready to fight their case on the grounds they should be given the full £35m seasonal allowance after leaving the Championship.
One to watch….
So for the fine print to start…
The Premier League’s Profitbaility and Sustainability rules were introducted to ensure a level of financial prudence, requiring clubs to act in a financially sustainable manner.
The rules stupulate that clubs are prohibited from recording losses greater than £105million over a three-year accounting period. Today’s results relate to the period between the start of the 2021/22 season and the end of the 2023/24 campaign.
Any clubs who had recorded losses for the first two years of that period had to submit their accounts to the Premier League on December 31, 2024.
If a club is charged today, they will have a 14-day period to appeal before they discover sanctions, possibly points deductions before the end of the season.
So who could be at threat….
And thanks for joining us, it could be a dramatic day in the Premier League as we await news on which – if any – Premier League clubs have breached the dreaded PSR rules.
We are expecting to discover the teams today, although any punishments will come way down the line, albeit before the end of the current campaign.
So stick with us and we will do our best to keep you completely updated…
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