Premier League Clubs Agree New Spending Controls

Yesterday, Premier League clubs voted for new legislation on spending, with a less stringent version of UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations set to be enforced in England's top flight from 2013/14.

The Football Association have not been involved in these talks, but Premier League bigwig Richard Scudamore suggests there will be an 'absolute prohibition' on clubs posting losses of £105m over the next three years. Any club making a loss of £5m a year will have be obliged to guarantee those losses against the owner's assets.

A restriction on salary increases will also be implemented. Premier League clubs are restricted in terms the amount of increased PL Central Funds that can be used to increase current player wage costs to the tune of:

2013/14: £4m
2014/14: £8m
2015/16: £12m

The Short Term Cost Control measure applies only to clubs with a player wage bill in excess of £52m in 2013/14, £56m in 2014/15 and £60m in 2015/16.

Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore said, 'Normally we stay silent on sanctions as the commission has a free range but clearly if there is a material breach of that rule we will be asking the commission to consider top-end sanctions.'

He added: 'The balance we have tried to strike is that a new owner can still invest a decent amount of money to improve their club but they are not going to be throwing hundreds and hundreds of millions in a very short period of time.

'While it has worked for a couple of clubs in the last 10 years, and I am not critical of that, if that's going to be done in the future it's going to have to be over a slightly longer term without the huge losses being made.'

13 Premier League clubs voted for the new sanctions, 6 voted against. Reading obstained from the vote.

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