Premier League agrees new spending cap – but three clubs vote against ‘anchoring’ approach

Premier League clubs have agreed a deal in principle to introduce an overall spending cap for future seasons.

It is understood that 16 clubs voted in favour of the new guidelines, with Chelsea abstaining and the three dissenting votes coming from Manchester City, Manchester United and Aston Villa.

Utilising a concept referred to as “anchoring” or “tethering”, it is expected that spending on transfers, wages and agents’ fees would be linked to the amount that the league’s bottom clubs receives in broadcast revenue, creating a hard ceiling on clubs’ outflows in these areas.

In principle, the idea is to prevent a further widening of the financial chasm that is increasingly seen between the top and bottom ends of the league. In reality, it might mean that excessive and lucrative sponsorship deals made by the richest club have no additional impact on their spending power, if their income is already over the anchored amount of the least affluent sides.

Clubs have already agreed to replace the current Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) from 2025-26 onwards, with cost controls instead limiting club expenditure on salaries, signing and fees to 85 per cent of total revenue.

The Premier League AGM in June requires 14 of 20 clubs to agree to motions to result in proposals being passed.

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish called on members “to be bold” when it came to implementing measures to ensure competitiveness in the Premier League remained balanced, amid fears state-owned clubs in particular could raise expenditure to unprecedented levels if not capped.

“I think there is change afoot. Uefa’s squad-cost caps are one idea. Maybe something that is a bit more rigid than that, with a hard cap at the top, that doesn’t take turnover into account, where there are vagaries of how that turnover comes about,” Parish added last year.

“There are really positive conversations going on about it. We also have to be very careful because there are also unintended consequences. Hopefully we will get somewhere that will be beneficial, not just to the clubs in the Premier League but to the whole pyramid and their ability to compete.”

The plan is reportedly for clubs to agree the structure of the deal in full for it to be in place for next season in “shadow form”, before becoming official ruling the following campaign alongside the new cost controls.