New Premier League financial rules appears to be viewed rather differently by the former and current Aston Villa top executives.
A new financial rule, SCR (Squad Cost Rules), is set to be introduced in the Premier League next season. It is meant to replace the heavily criticised PSR (Profitability and Sustainability Rules), which has been considered to give more advantage to the elite sides than the newly rising ones like Aston Villa and Newcastle United. Villa hopes the new regulation can be less heavily in favour of those in the ‘Big Six’.
Apparently, not everyone seem to be sharing the same hope or even view. At least that is what the ex-Aston Villa CEO, Christian Purslow and the current Villa President of Business Operations, Francesco Calvo shared their opinion on it.
Purslow seems to have his doubt on the new rule. He believes that SCR, with its limit on spending only 70 per cent of their turnover for players’ wages, transfer fees and agents’ fees due to their qualifying for continental competition, is likely to keep the club struggling to sign top names for the squad.
Thus, The Lions, which has just reportedly gained income of £378 million for the 2024/25 season, will not yet enjoy the luxury of having more flexibility to spend next season. It gives the same impact as PSR to them.
He shared his opinion on the Football Boardroom podcast, as reported by Birmingham World.
“There are features of new SCR rules which I like, but fundamentally they remain revenue-based. That means that the rules give a huge sporting advantage to those four, five, six clubs in the Premier League who have twice as much turnover as everyone else.
“Just to remind people, four of the teams are now touching £700 million of turnover, and then Chelsea and Spurs are not quite at that level but still £400 million to £500 million. We saw this week that Newcastle, owned by the richest fund in the world, has a turnover of half of that level.”
Therefore, Unai Emery’s men would still have to be cautious in the next transfer windows. The new rule is not yet in their favour, which would hand the equal opportunity to the big clubs to bolster the squad. The challenge remains ahead of them, even if they can spend 85 per cent of the turnover. That percentage only applies to all clubs which are not competing in Europe.
Purslow’s scepticism can also be seen through his statement as follows:
“How can you ever break into that top six consistently if, and it is an if, most teams perform to the level of their wage bill? That’s the biggest relation in football.’
Purslow, who left Villa Park in 2023, also suggested the solution for the club to consider, as reported by Birminghammail.co.uk.
“My simple idea is that instead of the profit on a player who cost you nothing, under the new rules I would turn them around to keep homegrown players, certainly for a period of time. Maybe pick a first professional contract or an age range of 25 or 26. If those wages did not count in your squad cost allowable spending, what an incentive to keep those players, as they are effectively in the books for nothing.”
On the other hand, Francesco Calvo does not entirely agree on his predecessor. He is aware about the concern on that struggle but also sees an opportunity. He shared his view while attending the meeting event at The Warehouse on Sunday, as reported by Birminghammail.
“The football ecosystem, and the governors of football, is a difficult one because it is different in different countries and different leagues, UEFA competitions too. If you don’t participate in Europe you have more freedom. It makes it difficult.
“The new Premier League rules are pushing clubs to invest. If they want to spend more then they need to invest more because they need to develop their revenues. This is good because we have invested a lot and our ownership group want to keep investing.
“Football, in general, has a problem with profitability. We have seen accounts from the English clubs in the last season and 16 of the clubs are losing money, which is a warning for all of us. We keep investing off the pitch and on the pitch especially, which is what we care the most about.
“The financial regulations make us worried because we want to comply with the rules, but the ambition and what the club has achieved in three and a half years is that ambition has no limit and that if we walk in the right way, there is somehow no limit for us.”
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