United to fight against new spending rules

Manchester United will push back against new proposals that would change the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR), creating the possibility of more discord within the competition.

The club is understood to be strongly opposed to the introduction of “anchoring” for the top flight, a system whereby the biggest spenders in the league would be tethered to the income of the last-placed club.

The idea behind anchoring is to limit the gap in spending between richer and poorer clubs, with the aim of creating a more competitive division. The policy has been mooted within the Premier League for some time, with a proposal made last year arguing that the maximum any club could spend on wages should be capped at four to five times the money received in television revenue by the 20th team in the top division.

United, whose sporting department is now under the control of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos team, are understood to believe that such a model would limit the ability of clubs at the top of the division to grow and the way to encourage more competitiveness would be to improve the ability of middle-ranking clubs to invest.

The Premier League has said it will revise its PSR after a season of controversy. Points deductions for Everton and Nottingham Forest have provoked a strong backlash from clubs and supporters alike, with uncertainty over the outcome of appeals against the verdicts likely to hang over the final weeks of the season.

The Premier League has deferred making an offer to the EFL on revenue distribution, pending the outcome of its cost control discussions.

The anchoring proposals are to be discussed at a Premier League shareholders’ meeting next week, with a final decision hoped for by the AGM in June. Last month clubs agreed to adopt another form of cost control, that of limiting player-related spending to a percentage of a club’s revenue.

This model is similar to new rules being introduced by Uefa into its club competitions, which are mandatory for all clubs who qualify for Europe.