United ‘vote for Premier League spending cap’

NEWCASTLE United are understood to have voted in favour of a spending cap after a Premier League meeting between the Magpies and their rivals.

Manchester United, Manchester City and Aston Villa are believed to have voted against the possible introduction of a spending cap on Monday, while Chelsea abstained. Any new rules will not be introduced until the 2025-26 season.

A figure will be introduced that guides a club on the maximum amount of money that can be spent on squad costs, including wages and transfer fees.

The figure will be a multiple of what the bottom club earns in broadcast revenues times 4.5.

Financial observers are suggesting that the spending cap could be around £466m for each club to spend on wages, transfer fees and agent fees.

The new cap has only been agreed in principle but the green light has been given from representatives of clubs, with a final vote to come at the next meeting.

It means that Newcastle should be able to spend more than they can under the current PSR rule book which many top-flight clubs deem unfit for purpose.

Clubs currently can only lose £105m over three seasons,

which has resulted in Nottingham Forest and Everton being deducted points because they have made bigger losses.

Under the current rules, Newcastle avoided spending any cash in the January window in fear of points deductions. The current set-up also led to CEO Darren Eales suggesting that star players could even be sold in order to keep the club’s recruitment levels high.

Eales said in January: “It’s just the nature of the beast. If you trade players on, it creates more headroom.

“You have to keep growing that headroom, increasing commercial revenue and player trading.

“It’s difficult to hypothesise, but if we’re offered

£1billion for one of those players, then no one could argue against that making sense.

“Any decision we make will always be against the backdrop of the medium to long-term benefit for the club. It’s difficult to say specifically on certain players, but I can say that, if we’re going to get to where we want to get to, at times it is necessary to trade your players.”