Ahead of a key vote by Premier League clubs next week, the outcome could be of significant importance to Aston Villa.
Speculation in recent months has suggested that Villa are close to the limit when it comes to the league’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR).
That in turn has raised concern that we may have to sell a key player or two this summer in order to balance our books and fund our spending as we look to strengthen Unai Emery’s squad, and ultimately avoid breaching those regulations and risk a sanction.
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While it promotes the safeguarding of a club’s financial position and avoids running into trouble by amounting significant debts, it evidently also restricts a club’s ability to grow and become increasingly competitive to build on progress on the pitch.
Villa look set to be the latest victim of that as we prepare for a Champions League campaign next season while trying to build on our fourth-place finish in the Premier League, but a vote next week could be fundamental in a vital change being made.
As per The Times, Premier League clubs will vote next week on a proposal put forward by Crystal Palace based on allowing clubs who qualify for Europe to claim the difference between the top club’s UEFA’s coefficient payment and their own as allowable losses. The impact of which would ultimately see the current limit of £105m in losses over three years raised by an extra £20m- £30m, as the report details how last season, Man City received £28m, while Newcastle Utd received just £3.8m.
It’s added that at the same annual meeting next week, Villa will push to raise the PSR limit to £135m which will be a major overall shift for clubs, while the above proposal from Palace could be an alternative solution that is passed.
Particularly given our push to compete in Europe consistently and as we try to break up the traditional ‘big six’ in the Premier League by being an established presence in the top four, this could prove to be a fundamental change if the proposal goes through.
It would give Villa, and others, more flexibility and the ability to spend more freely to improve and become more competitive, without having the current constraints placed on us by PSR that are evidently causing clubs to sacrifice talent and be increasingly shrewd in the market to replace rather than improve.
Time will tell what the outcome of the meeting will be and if either proposal is given the green light, but based on the Times report, it will certainly be welcomed at Villa given our ambitious plans moving forward.
