Premier League out of their depth .....
Sep 07, 2024
Profitability and Sustainability Regulations
Leicester City won their appeal this week relating to breaches of the Premier League's Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR) which was previously FFP and is, apparently, going to be renamed yet again in the near future. I suppose I should have said "alleged breaches" but it doesn't really appear that City disputed the charges, just the Premier League's authority to hear the case in the first place.
City's argument was that they could not be charged for a PSR breach for the 22/23 campaign as they were no longer a member of the EPL when the calculation was carried out, having been relegated to the Championship, two weeks before the end of their 22/23 accounting period. Basically, that they were no longer bound by EPL rules and they had no jurisdiction to hear the case.
Sports firm Centrefield LLP and counsel Nick De Marco KC, Davd Lowe and Marlena Valles secured victory for City and were playing a different game to the Premier League, whose rules are a shambles and need to be completely rewritten and by a competent legal team.
The club said it welcomed the ruling (that's a surprise), which supported its consistently stated position that any action against the club should be pursued in accordance with the applicable rules. The truth is that their legal team found yet another loophole in the EPL rules, just as many other clubs have done in the past and if still required, Manchester City's huge army of representatives will do so in the future.
The three man appeal board, which included two former Court of Appeal judges, ruled that in its decision it "identified flaws in the drafting of the Premier League's rules." In challenging the Premier League's attempts to charge Leicester City, the club has simply sought to ensure (in the interests of providing consistency for all clubs) that the rules are applied based on how they are actually written."
The City legal team has played a blinder, now their squad need to follow suit!
The Premier League said it was "surprised and disappointed" with the outcome! Adding: "It is of critical importance that the Premier League is able to enforce its rules consistently to maintain the principle of fairness. "The League will now consider what further action it can take to ensure this is the case."
PSR has been a farce and sharp accounting has allowed other clubs to circumvent the rules. Chelsea for example, and they are not alone, sold two hotels to "themselves" for £76.5m and signed a £40m one season shirt deal with Infinite Athlete, a company with revenues of just $15.4m, but with links to Blues owners Clearlake Capital. The Premier League took many weeks to sign off on both deals, but did so eventually.
I genuinely feel that the EPL should just call an amnesty and draw up a completely new set of rules for next season, they have 8-10 months to get it right. Having said that, I am pretty certain that ways would be found around any new rules anyway, but it would be an opportunity to close most of the loopholes, what we have now is a total mess and the Premier League a laughing stock.
Good luck!
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