‘REGULATIONS ARE HOLDING CLUBS BACK’

Potters chief executive Scholes believes EFL rules do little to address financial differences

STOKE City chief executive Tony Scholes has reiterated the club’s drive to try to persuade the EFL to change its financial model.

Clubs in the Championship are committed to Financial Fair Play (FFP), which limits the amount of money that owners can invest, spending no more than £39m above what they bring in over a three-year period.

To put that into context, the average wage bill for the 20 Premier League clubs last season was £80m and all-but three spent at least £35m on wages alone.

Stoke have argued that more needs to be done to address the chasm between the top flight and the next division – and that the current rules do more to make the difference worse.

Scholes, pictured, said: “I think FFP generally holds us back as a club – and not just us, it holds back a good number of clubs. When you put restrictions on what clubs can do, it takes away some deals that they would like to do.

“That’s the case for us. We’re a club that is very well supported by its owners and always has been but the level that they are able to go to is limited by the regulations that are in place at any time.

“The current regulations – they are called the profit and sustainability regulations, as part of FFP – do restrict us significantly.

“We would like that to change. We’ve made no secret about that since we came into the league and, indeed, before that. We argued that the rules weren’t appropriate, weren’t the best set of rules.

“But they are what they are. They are the rules that are in place so we have to operate within them and do everything we can to make sure that’s the case.”

Championship clubs have long been debating the financial rules but a Big Picture idea put forward by Manchester United and Liverpool, which would have involved ceding power to the Premier League’s top clubs in return for assistance, was rejected earlier this season.

Several clubs have been hit by penalties in recent seasons for breaking the rules, with Sheffield Wednesday ensconced in a relegation battle after being docked six points this season and Birmingham City were docked nine points in 2018/19.

Stoke – whose three years of Premier League parachute payments following relegation ends this season – have significantly reined in their spending on transfers to comply and Michael O’neill has only paid fees for Jordan Thompson, about £300,000 from Blackpool, and Jacob Brown, about £2m from Barnsley, as well as Alfie Doughty, about £600,000 from Charlton.

Meanwhile, former Stoke midfielder Darren Fletcher has been appointed technical director at Manchester United.

The 37-year-old re-joined his old club as a first team coach in January and his new role will be to offer ‘technical input and direction into all football and performance areas’.

He has overseen recent games with analysts, rather than with manager Ole

Gunnar Solskjaer in the dug out.

Stoke take on Burton in the FA Youth Cup third round at Clayton Wood tomorrow (7pm). The tie was due to take place in January but rearranged due to pandemic restrictions. The winners face a trip to Southampton.