Premier League clubs agree new cost controls

By Simon Austin BBC Sport

The 20 Premier League clubs have agreed, in principle, to introduce radical new cost controls.

There are two main proposals on the table - a break-even rule and a cap on the amount clubs can increase their wage bills by each season.

Club chief executives have now been asked to produce detailed plans for exactly how these proposals will work.

These rules would mark a major change for the clubs, which made cumulative losses of £361m in 2010-11.

Champions Manchester City, for example, made a £97.9m loss in their latest set of results, which were revealed last Friday.

City and Fulham are the only clubs opposed to any spending controls, BBC Sport understands. However, any new Premier League rule requires the approval of only 14 of the 20 clubs in order to be introduced.

With the Premier League's new three-year television deals expected to break through the £5bn barrier from 2013, momentum is growing to find a way of preventing the majority of that cash going straight to players and agents.

There have now been six meetings of top-flight chairmen where cost controls have been discussed without any concrete decisions being made.

The next meeting will be on 6 February.

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Comment number 370.
Ruffshank Dufflebonk
20th December 2012 - 18:01

@369. Think ! Swansea take players off other clubs on the cheap for more wages. Is that levelling the field for the smaller clubs.The FFPR is designed to keep the big clubs where they are and to hell with the Swansea's. Can't you see this ???

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Comment number 369.
Aussie Jack
20th December 2012 - 14:33

This has to happen. Smaller teams that have (at least in recent times) been managed well like the Swans will always struggle to keep good players but this levelling of the playing field will help. Sinclair goes to City and gets a four fold increase in salary yet he never gets a game. We can only hope that these measures, along with the Financial Fair Play Rules will at least make a dent in greed.

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Comment number 368.
Ruffshank Dufflebonk
20th December 2012 - 12:40

(Scratches head).. Every team has at one time or another spent above their earnings. Swansea in the lower leagues did it. Wigan did it. But lets forget how we made it,and how we reached the Prem. Its now,and teams like Chelsea and City are very naughty for doing it.

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Comment number 367.
xwarex SCFC
19th December 2012 - 21:12

Thanks for the support there to Swans however Hernandez cost 5.55m and Ki 5.5m so Michu would not be the most expensive player to date. However, you are right in saying that Swans posted a profit last season, 14.6m, which is more than most Clubs can say these days. Overspending is just another form of cheating by clubs, just buying victories, not good enough to build and work within their means

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Comment number 366.
TwistedWhisper
19th December 2012 - 20:52

To be honest it shouldn't take millions/billions to make a decent football team and at the end of the day one or two 'top' players don't make a team. Take Swansea for instance, decent team not only breaking even but in profit- Most expensive player to date Mitchu for £2 million.

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