The last two sets of promoted teams in the Premier League have gone straight back down, which paints a bleak picture for Leeds United as they look to do better than the six that came before them.
Leeds’ promotion back to the Premier League is going to see them spend big in order to stand any chance of staying up under Daniel Farke.
The ongoing trend since Leeds have been out of the top flight is that whoever has secured promotion has immediately been relegated, going down with a whimper, and another year of Premier League revenue for the same 17 clubs spells trouble for Leeds, Burnley and Sunderland to compete.
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Ipswich Town chief complains about Premier League PSR rules as Leeds United take their place
Ipswich Town faced a massive rebuild in their summer window after promotion, enjoying back-to-back promotions from League One up to the Premier League, and bridging that two-tier gap in their squad proved a challenge too difficult.
Not helping them were the PSR restrictions placed on every club in the top two tiers, of course earning significantly less revenue than the rest of the top flight that had stayed up in the 23/24 season, something Leeds have got even worse given the same 17 clubs have earned a further year of Premier League benefits on their balance sheet.
Premier League clubs over a three-year rolling cycle are permitted to submit losses up to £105million, but for every year in the EFL in that given accounting period, the permitted losses drop – Ipswich (24/25) and Leeds (25/26) both being permitted to £61million losses following promotion, due to spending two of those years in the EFL, and then one upon promotion in the Premier League.
(REUTERS/Chris Radburn)
Tractor Boys chairman Mark Ashton has made his feelings known about the disparity between those promoted to the top flight, and those already in it.
“There’s a lot of talk in the industry this year about those rules (PSR) being changed. I think those rules will be changed and amended over the next 12 months, and I would heavily support that,” he said to EADT.
“It’s been a prohibitor for us because clubs who’ve been in the Premier League for a number of years naturally have much bigger revenues through commercial headroom, consistent Premier League revenues and player trading numbers.
“It’s a huge challenge. The clubs who are promoted are naturally at a disadvantage, but the Premier League want you to spend money because they want you to enhance their brand and be part of the show.
“To say it’s been a challenge from a profit and sustainability, financial fair play perspective is an understatement. And I’ve made those representations very clearly to the league.
“The reality is the financial rules are stacked against you. I’m not saying the baby needs to be thrown out with the bath water, but I think there needs to be an adaptation.”
Ashton’s comments aren’t merely shouted into the void, though, as he stresses the Premier League have been made well aware of his feelings, which are likely to be echoed by Burnley and Leeds, he claims.
“What I said to the league was, look, as a club that’s gone back-to-back, I think someone from the Premier League and from the EFL should be sitting down with us and saying ‘tell us the challenges you’ve faced so that we as leagues learn to work together better to support those type of clubs on the transition up and on that transition back’.
“You hear noise in the industry about should we or should we not have parachute payments. Well, if we didn’t have parachute payments we couldn’t have signed any of the players that we signed on promotion.
“There has to be a balance between the two. Whether you call it parachute payments or it’s rebadged to something else, there still has to be a line that’s smooth between the two divisions and, at the moment, the step speaks for itself.
“I think it’s more than a trend. The numbers don’t lie. You’ve got two clubs who’ve gone up this season with parachute payments (Burnley and Leeds), really well-run clubs with good experience and knowledge, but they know they’re going to go into that division finding it really tough. I think the rules need to adapt.”
Leeds United have to work within current PSR spending limits, but change is needed
We can all scream and shout about the spending rules needing to be changed, but here and now, nothing will change about how Leeds need to tackle this summer window.
The PSR rules are what they are annoyingly, and they give an inherent advantage to those that have been in the top flight for longer than us, which spells trouble for us trying to bridge that gap in footballing quality, when the financial gap gets demonstrably wider with every three sets whipping boys to come up from the EFL.
Change has been discussed, but the decision to shift away from this current system was postponed beyond the 25/26 season, meaning this summer has to be one of value-for-money at Elland Road.