Maguire: Rules not perfect, but will remove imbalance

THE Premier League rebels who voted against changes to the financial rules probably had half a mind on keeping down Championship upstarts, it is claimed.

- Peter Smith

The top flight is adopting a system of Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) from next season. That is an annual assessment to replace Profit and Sustainability (PSR), which was formerly known as Financial Fair Play (FFP).

Clubs will be able to spend 85 per cent of money they generate on squad costs, such as transfers, wages and agent fees.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire doesn’t say the new rules will be perfect but they will remove an imbalance as promoted clubs try to hold their own in the big time.

Under the old system, clubs were allowed to lose £13 million per season in the Championship compared to £35m per season in the Premier League. Over the rolling three-year period in which they were assessed it gave the teams who stayed up a financial advantage of up to £44m extra allowable losses.

Removing that would be a significant boost for all promoted clubs but particularly for teams who aren't yo-yos, which the likes of Stoke City and Coventry are hoping to be this year or as soon as possible afterwards.