Newcastle United, Man Utd, Liverpool & Co set to discuss FFP fate as Premier League reveal stance

Premier League chief executive officer Richard Masters has confirmed that potential changes to profit and sustainability regulations will be discussed next month.

This comes after Nottingham Forest and Everton were charged for breaching PSR, which limits clubs to losses of no more than £105million over a three-year period. It is the second time Everton have been charged this season, with the first charge seeing the club handed a 10-point deduction in November.

The Premier League are proposing changes that align more with UEFA's Financial Fair Play system which limits a club's spending on wages, transfers and agents' fees to 70% of their total revenue by the start of the 2025-26 season. UEFA's rules will be implemented where a 90% limit is set for the current 2023-24 season and an 80% limit for the 2024-25 campaign before dropping to 70%

Newcastle have had to adhere to both sets of financial rules this season. The club's staff cost-to-turnover ratio revealed in the latest club accounts stood at 74.1% for the 2022-23 campaign.

Newcastle's total losses for the last three seasons total £155million, but many expenditures are not included in the Premier League's PSR assessment such as academy, training ground and women's football investments. As a result, Newcastle's relevant losses are below the £105million threshold as things stand.

While Newcastle United have been compliant with the rules, they have shackled the club when it comes to transfer spending. The Magpies are yet to make a signing this month with any major permanent signings highly unlikely as they aim to remain compliant with PSR.

And with that comes increased calls from Premier League clubs for PSR changes, with a two-day shareholders meeting now confirmed in February.

Premier League chief Masters said: "We are considering moving to the squad cost ratio model that UEFA has adopted.

“On the first day [of the meeting], we will be talking about financial regulation. I don't know whether that's known but the current system we have at the moment, the PSR system, we are contemplating making some changes to that over time.

“We have some proposals out for consultation with our clubs about moving and aligning more with the UEFA system. UEFA have spent two years changing its financial regulations away from something called FFP to something called squad cost ratio, which is a different calculation, more a wage-to-turnover type calculation.

“Because over time we have historically aligned with UEFA, because seven or eight of our clubs are in European competition, we need to consider whether that is an appropriate move for us, how we do that and when. That's a large chunk of day one. Day two is a normal shareholders' meeting."

Speaking about potential changes to Financial Fair Play rules last week, Newcastle chief executive Darren Eales said: "There’s always a discussion on a whole raft of Premier League rules. There is always that challenge of how you have a regime that protects football clubs from going bust and having the ability for clubs to invest and be upwardly mobile.

"That is always the tension you have. There will be dialogue from all the clubs in terms of, 'have we got that tension right, in allowing clubs to be competitive and protecting clubs against going bust or overspending?'”