‘Very difficult’ - Newcastle United & Aston Villa to be hit hardest by new Premier League rules
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Newcastle United latest news: One finance expert believes it will be ‘very difficult’ for Newcastle United to compete under new Premier League SCR rules.
Football finance expert Stefan Borson believes that Newcastle United and Aston Villa will be hardest hit by the Premier League’s new financial rules.
Last week, Premier League clubs voted in a new ‘squad cost ratio’ (SCR) system of financial controls. That will be introduced from the beginning of the 2026/27 season and replace the current PSR system.
SCR will limit clubs to spending 85% of their football revenue for on-pitch spending, including transfer fees, wages and agents’ costs. SCR follows a similar model introduced by UEFA, although it will be set at a higher level than the 70% allowed by European football’s governing body. PSR, the current financial rules, will remain in place until the end of the current season.
Both Newcastle United and Aston Villa have been restricted by financial rules set by the Premier League and UEFA and have seen their ambitions to regularly challenge at the top end of various competitions blocked by these rules.
Finance expert predicts SCR issues for Newcastle United and Aston Villa
The introduction of SCR came about after 14 clubs voted for the change with Bournemouth, Brighton, Brentford, Crystal Palace, Fulham and Leeds United voting against its introduction. In explaining just what the changes are, and how they will affect Premier League clubs, football finance expert Stefan Borson told TalkSport: “Effectively, it is a simplification of former rules in that it only looks at certain elements of a club’s financial performance.
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“It looks at its revenue, its player trading profit over a three year period and sets against that, the amount of money it spends on players so that’s the first-team squad, the manager, none of the coaching staff, and the amortization costs that are accrued on the books. Plus a little bit of agent fees, but some of those are already included in the amortization fees.”
Whilst these rules may offer clubs not competing in Europe a little bit of wiggle room compared to PSR, any club competing in Europe are still bound by UEFA’s 70% squad cost rule. Aston Villa and Chelsea were both hit with fines for breaching UEFA rules in the summer and Borson predicts that Newcastle United, who may also find it ‘difficult’ to navigate the Premier League’s new rules and regularly challenge the elite, could also be hit with a similar punishment.
“The teams it hit hardest are the same teams,” Borson continued. “Villa, it’s very difficult for Villa to comply under this new system. Newcastle United [also] very difficult to comply with this new system.
“Villa and Chelsea both failed the equivalent UEFA test in June. They both failed it already and Villa are on a pathway to try and reduce their [squad-cast] percentage.
“The test is slightly different, I won’t bore you with the minor detail, but the Premier League system is slightly more preferential for Aston Villa and Chelsea. The bottom line is that these teams have already failed these systems.
“Newcastle will be in the same position. Newcastle at the end of the season will fail part of the UEFA system, they’ll fail the football earnings system which is very similar to PSR regime. And they may also fail the 70% rule for UEFA.”