‘Stupid! Draconian!’ - Simon Jordan tears into Richard Masters after Newcastle United claim
Premier League CEO Richard Masters caused a stir with his comments about financial regulation on Wednesday.
Simon Jordan has ripped into Premier League CEO Richard Masters for claiming everyone can aspire to win the title.
Newcastle United and Aston Villa supporters were furious at the top-flight chief playing down concerns over financial restrictions. Both clubs have found themselves picked off by the traditional “big six” despite disrupting the elite in recent years.
Hamstrung due to PSR restrictions - now repackaged as SCR for the upcoming campaign - Newcastle and Villa have lost Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes, Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans and Ezri Konsa between them this summer. Ollie Watkins could be next amid reported Saudi Arabian interest.
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What Richard Masters said
In a telling talkSPORT admission, Masters brazenly claimed the Premier League would look “very different” without financial regulation. He said: “Either you take the view that they shouldn't have any financial rules or you should be able to spend as long as you can show that you can afford it…
“I think our league would look very different. Premier League clubs don't want that. They do want financial regulation. They may all have a slightly different version of the financial rules that they would like for themselves.
“Villa have been in Europe four times in a row, twice in the Champions League. They won their first trophy for a very long time and I know they would like to kick on from here, but they've had fantastic success.
“Newcastle… obviously a season of change as their players are leaving. They're signing new ones. They've got a new manager. Who knows what's going to happen? That's the excitement of the Premier League. But everyone should be able to aspire within the Premier League and I think that has been proven over the last four to five seasons.”
Simon Jordan fights back
Former Crystal Palace chief Jordan pushed back on Masters’ claim that anyone can aim to win the Premier League. He said: “No, everyone can't win the Premier League. The next question should have been, well, how do you achieve that? Of course an industry should have governance - governance and over-regulation are two different things.
“How do Newcastle get to the level that Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham are at? Chelsea and Manchester City were allowed to buy their way into a space where they could compete with the football clubs that had already established their position over years and years and years.
“Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United… they don't have to manage their books, do they? They go out and spend like drunken sailors, because they've got the turnover. How do Newcastle or Aston Villa get a £600million turnover? They might be able to do it in 10 years' time when the turnover of Liverpool, Man United, Manchester City is now £900million and on and on we go.”
‘Stupid! Draconian!’ - Simon Jordan
Continuing his tirade, Jordan described the current regulations as “unjust, stupid and draconian". He added: “The success of the Premier League was brought about by the open market, by market values. Why can't people invest in their football clubs for as long as they choose? Why can't you pour money into a football club to build it into the image as long as you can prove that you can sustain it?
“Because profit and sustainability, what a complete lack of honesty. Whether we like it or not, what is unsustainable about a sovereign wealth fund? How much more sustainable do you want to be?
“I don't think it should be just the Wild West where you can do what you want. But if you're a club that's got a new set of ownership, why shouldn't you be able to have five years of unvetted expenditure to build yourself up to a level to catch those that are already there? Why can't you have five years where you're not being regulated by the previous incarnation, the previous management, that might run it in a certain way?
“‘I want to invest in it. I've got the means to do it. You can't - you're governed by PSR’. Have you ever heard anything so unjust? The league has got more popular, you've got different sets of ownership, you've allowed nation states to come in and now you don't want people to spend. Now you want to close the shop. What a stupid, draconian, one-dimensional way of thinking.”
“The top clubs do not have to sell their best players to balance their books. When the clubs like Newcastle have a little whiff of talent or opportunity or real outcomes, what comes along? PSR cuts them off the knees and they have to sell their best players.”
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