New Premier League spending rules unlikely to be adopted before next season after latest shareholders’ meeting

New Premier League spending rules are unlikely to be adopted before next season after the latest shareholders’ meeting ended without progress.  

League executives have been trying to introduce new measures of financial governance over the past 18 months.

They were confident of gaining the clubs’ backing for the new proposals at Tuesday’s meeting in central London. 

However, the Guardian claims no significant progress was made at the meeting, and the chances of adopting the new spending rules before next season are slim. 

The Premier League’s much-maligned financial rules will likely continue.  

One proposal discussed was to introduce squad cost ratio rules that would limit a club’s spending on wages, transfers and agent fees to 85 percent of their revenue. 

Nine Premier League clubs are already committed to such a system because of European qualification and reportedly value the flexibility that the current rules provide them. 

Another proposal, known as anchoring, would cap the spending for all clubs to approximately five times the bottom team’s income from the league. 

Sixteen clubs voted in favour of anchoring last year. Manchester City, Manchester United and Aston Villa voted against the proposal, with Chelsea abstaining. 

The case for the rules was made again, and clubs in favour argued that anchoring could be key to maintaining the top-flight’s competitive balance. 

However, concerns have been raised that if the principle is established, the English Football League could follow suit, potentially causing significant implications for relegated clubs.