English Premier League clubs are moving forward with a plan to introduce a salary cap starting with the 2025-26 season to address spending inequality on players in the world’s most popular soccer league. The proposal was approved Monday at the league’s shareholder meeting and will now be put to a vote at the league’s annual general meeting in June.
The new rules would cap payrolls by introducing an “anchoring” system tied to the TV revenue of the club that finished in 20th place. Last season, Southampton earned £104 million from TV—$131 million based on current exchange rates—and a multiple of five times that benchmark, or $653 million, would have been the cap had the rules been in place. The spending would include wages, amortized transfer fees and agent fees. Chelsea topped that mark, while Manchester City fell just short.
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Manchester United, Man City and Aston Villa voted against the proposal, according to Martyn Ziegler of The Times. Chelsea abstained, per Ziegler.
The new proposal would work in conjunction with the squad cost controls that will go into effect in 2025 and replace the existing Profit & Sustainability rules that have tripped up Everton and Nottingham Forest with points deductions this season. Starting in 2025, teams will be limited to spend 85% of their total revenue on wages, transfer payments and agents’ fees.
The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), which serves as the union for the players, is reserving final judgment but reiterated its stance on bringing a cap to the EPL.
“We will obviously wait to see further details of these specific proposals, but we have always been clear that we would oppose any measure that would place a ‘hard’ cap on player wages,” a PFA spokesperson shared in a statement. “There is an established process in place to ensure that proposals like this, which would directly impact our members, have to be properly consulted on.”
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