PREMIER LEAGUE clubs are ready to discuss a spending cap for the first time.
Under proposals being pushed ahead of the league’s AGM in Hampshire over the next two days, teams would be restricted to a formula linked to the TV cash paid to the lowest-placed club.
SunSport understands that the idea being discussed, under a proposal described as “anchoring”, would see all 20 Premier League sides limited to spending four times the broadcast income of the league’s bottom club.
This season, 20th-placed Southampton received £102.5m, meaning the cap would stand at £410m.
It is argued that by forcing a fixed maximum spend, the league would be able to maintain its competitive balance.
The new rules, if introduced, are seen as an alternative to the mirroring of new Uefa regulations which will limit clubs to spending 70 per cent of their annual revenues on transfers and wages by the 2025-26 season.
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Prem bosses feel that such a system would be unfair as it would exacerbate the divide between clubs, especially with the expanded Champions League set to be worth up to 33 per cent more from 2024-25.
But the proposed cap is certain to meet significant hostility and opposition, with the Big Six already gearing up to block the concept.
Smaller clubs, though, believe anchoring can help to prevent the financial divide growing ever bigger.
One club source said: “This is a clever concept and a safety measure.
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“There are a lot of worries about the new Champions League format and the extra money that will bring for the clubs involved, even before you take Fifa’s new Club World Cup into account.
“The strength of the Premier League has been its competitiveness and unpredictability and this proposal can help maintain that.”
Club chiefs, who are meeting in Hampshire, are expected to agree to increase the number of matches screened live on TV in the next three-year rights deal to start in 2024-25.
Currently 200 of the 380 games each season are shown live but clubs could agree to increase that by as many as 60 matches per season.
The clubs, though, agreed in March that they intended to retain the Saturday 3pm TV “black out” and it is more likely that the additional matches will be games played in midweek blocks, although more late weekend kick-offs could also be in the offing.
But there is no appetite among Prem clubs for the end of the controversial parachute payments worth up to £100m over three seasons to relegated clubs.
Despite ongoing engagement with the EFL and FA, agreement on the proposed “new deal for football” which would see a significant increase in the amount paid to the pyramid remains unlikely at this stage.
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