Leeds United and their Premier League rivals will vote on a number of important spending-related topics next month.
Leeds United are due to vote on a potentially major change to how Premier League clubs spend in the transfer market next month.
Leeds and their 19 Premier League rivals will gather on November 21, according to ESPN, to cast their vote on the potential to introduce a spending cap known as top-to-bottom anchoring (TBA). The change would essentially cap squad-related spending at five times the smallest central Premier League broadcasting and prize money payout.
In theory, TBA should promote competitive balance by keeping the richest clubs from blowing financially inferior - or newly-promoted - clubs out of the water in the transfer market. Manchester City, Manchester United and Aston Villa voted against further exploring the idea in April and there are thought to be growing concerns among lower-ranked teams too.
The ESPN report claims mid-table or bottom-half teams have concerns that if passed by the Premier League, the cap could be adopted by the EFL which would essentially tie relegated teams down financially to the lowest-revenue Championship outfit. Leeds and others have recently benefitted from parachute payments but under TBA caps, outspending rivals would be much more difficult.
Leeds and their Premier League rivals are also due to vote on whether to stick with profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) or move to the new squad cost rules (SCR). The latter effectively caps spending at 70 per cent of overall revenue for teams competing in UEFA competition and 85 per cent for those not playing in Europe, such as Daniel Farke’s side.
What have Leeds United said about PSR and transfer spending?
The introduction of SCR would be on yearly revenue instead of a three-year cycle, which would likely have benefitted Leeds financially in the summer just gone had it been in place. That is because after two years in the Championship, their maximum permitted losses to remain in PSR limits were £61m, while the 17 established Premier League teams - many of whom Leeds can compete with in terms of revenue - had maximum losses of £105m for that same period.
“Yeah, so unequivocally, we are maxing PSR out this season, this summer,” Leeds’ managing director Robbie Evans told the YEP last month. “We spent everything we could. If we had gone onto other targets yesterday or onto higher price players back in July, the consequences would have been seen in the current roster, in terms of players we either could not add beyond the guys that got brought in - so the players that came in in August wouldn't have come had those deals been made in July - or you'd see more key players from last year's promotion side having to go.”
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Evans continued: “We are maxing out PSR this season, just as last season and the season before, and that is something that would be verifiable when the accounts come out, whenever they come out. There's no point in trying to lie about that.
“We've carried a big wage bill two years ago, a big wage bill a year ago, as you all know, we lost roughly £60m pounds in our company's accounts record in fiscal year 24. That loss is inside of our three year PSR window.
“For some perspective, between two years in the Championship and a one year in the Prem, you're allowed PSR losses are £61m pounds. So those numbers are very similar, meaning this year we have to operate very efficiently to make our three-year window work.”
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