PSR has become a controversial entity in English football, with many fans who don’t support the traditional major clubs, or those clubs who established their dominance in the country just before the creation of these financial rules.
There are many examples of clubs having been frustrated at the PSR rules including the likes of Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Everton.
While it has not stopped these clubs from investing money into the transfer market, as Everton chase a deal for Tyler Dibling, it has curtailed the muscle they can flex in the market.
Tyler Dibling reacts during Eastleigh vs Southampton in a Pre-Season Friendly
Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images
There are many complaints about the current PSR rules, with an EFL owner believing there is an ‘odd’ rule making the Premier League less ‘interesting’.
West Brom’s owner shares PSR ‘concern’ and proposes new model
PSR has forced a number of clubs to be more clever about how they operate in the market, with West Brom and their owner Shilen Patel being no different, as seen in their business to sell Torbjorn Heggem to Bologna for £10 million.
The club then reinvested some of that money into his replacement for a fraction of the fee, as they signed Krystian Bielik from Birmingham City for £1 million.
Now, Patel has called on these rules to be changed, citing his “concern” over the lack of parity that PSR has begun to cause.
He told The Price of Football Podcast: “First and foremost I find it odd that when you move through the tiers there are different rules at different tiers so at a minimum there should be some consistency.
“I think moving from profit and loss to at least the squad cost ratio system and more broadly there are other conversation, but I think there is a way to balance what the higher revenue clubs want to do with something that keeps the league interesting which I’m concerned is something that is going away.
“But look at the last Premier League season, you knew who was going to win the league, you knew who was going to be relegated. Whereas in the Championship, everyone in the league was in a position to potentially make the play-offs or potentially be relegated.
Shilen Patel Owner and Chairman of West Bromwich Albion watches on from the stands at the Hawthorns before the Blackburn Rovers game
Photo by Adam Fradgley/West Bromwich Albion FC via Getty Images
“But I think that speaks more to the type of balance you would want and even moving between the tiers you would want to see people faring differently.”
Given the restrictions PSR imposes, it will be a struggle for most promoted clubs from the Championship to ever establish themselves in the Premier League.
Promoted sides have to spend millions upon promotion to even compete in the division, yet no one has managed to survive in the last two campaigns.
Virgil Van Dijk lifting the Premier League trophy
Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images/Getty Images For The Premier League
Nottingham Forest were the last side to survive promotion and only managed to achieve this by breaching PSR.
The gap between the Premier League and the Championship is getting bigger and those sides that do earn promotion will soon have no chance of competing in the top flight of English football, unless there is a reform to PSR or copy the example shown by Nottingham Forest.