On Monday, there was tension in the British media related to a meeting held in London, where shareholders in the Premier League clubs were to decide whether to introduce a spending cap in terms of wages and transfer expenses in the Premier League from the start of the 2025/2026 season.
In practice, this will mean that there will be a ceiling on a maximum consumption that a club can use, which will again be calculated based on what the team with the lowest income from the Premier League’s commercial and TV agreements, writes The Athletic.
Martyn Ziegler was early on https://twitter.com/martynziegler/status/1784946264376737807 and reported that there is agreement between the Premier League clubs to introduce this measure and that it will be put to a vote in the league’s official meeting in June.
From Ziegler it also emerges that there were three clubs that voted against the proposal, with Manchester United being one of the clubs that did just this, along with Manchester City and Aston Villa.
The Athletic has picked up from its sources the background for United voting against the proposal, which is about the club seeing the measure as uncompetitive for the Premier League as a league compared to other leagues in Europe.
Looking at what this would look like if the proposal was launched before this season, the cost cap would be £518m, which is five times what 20th-placed Southampton earned from Premier League deals. Several of the clubs in the league already spend such sums on wages and would have difficulty staying within.
The PFA has also commented on the meeting and the direction the Premier League will now take and has made the following statement.
“We will wait to see the details of the proposal, but we will oppose any measure that would put a hard cap on player wages. There is an established process to ensure that proposals such as this, which will directly affect our members, must be properly consulted.”
