Yahoo News Nottingham Forest to vote on new Premier League spending rule 'vehemently opposed' by Man Utd
Nottingham Forest and the other 19 Premier League clubs are gearing up for a crucial vote on the introduction of a "hard spending cap" as part of new financial regulations for the 2025/26 top-flight season.
In a significant meeting scheduled for Monday, top-flight teams will deliberate stringent cost control measures, with “anchoring” being a key point of discussion. This would limit the spending power of wealthier clubs to around five times the TV revenue earned by the league’s lowest earner, affecting expenditure on transfers, wages and agents' fees. A two-thirds (14-6) majority of clubs will be needed to change the rules.
The exact multiplier remains undecided, but last season's bottom club, Southampton, pocketed £103.6m from TV rights. By contrast, champions Manchester City had the heftiest wage bill in the league at £422.9m, more than four times the Saints’ TV earnings.
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Earlier this month, Premier League clubs reached a consensus on overhauling the existing profit and sustainability rules by the 2025/26 season. The new framework, which will replace the system by which Forest have been hit by a four-point deduction this season, will cap clubs’ spending at 85% of their total income on wages, transfer fees and agents' costs.
The "anchoring" strategy is now being considered as an additional measure to prevent the financial imprudence that has led to points deductions for regulatory breaches by the likes of Forest and Everton, reports football.london .
However, the Telegraph claims Manchester United are likely to "vehemently oppose" any proposal of a strict spending limit, believing it would put them at a "disadvantage" compared to European rivals. Manchester City and Chelsea are also thought to be ready to reject the move.
Having invested more than £1bn in players since Todd Boehly's takeover at Stamford Bridge two years ago, Chelsea may well have good reason to align themselves with City and United in fighting a spending cap.
If such a limit had been in place last season, the maximum squad expenditure would have been £518m. Chelsea, having spent £539m on wages, transfers and agent fees, would have been the sole top-flight club to exceed the threshold.
The Athletic warn that opposition may come from elsewhere too. They write: “The debate must also involve the group of stakeholders perhaps most affected by the proposal: the players.
“Any move to set a ceiling on how much money an employer can pay their employees - particularly one not based on that employer’s ability or desire to pay their own staff - is always going to attract the interest of the PFA, the players’ union.”
Forest are currently in the midst of an appeal hearing over their points sanction, with a decision from an independent commission expected in the next few days.
