There seems to be very little discussion about what the P&S rules are even officially meant to achieve.
If there’s going to be any regulation about spending, there seem to be broadly two sensible options.
- Protection of a club’s finances - limiting allowable debts based on what the clubs and owner can afford
- Levelling the playing field - an NFL-style salary cap
The current rules are clearly not intended to do either.
Everton/Moshiri could presumably afford these losses. If allowed, he could just choose to put more money into the club to cover them. And enforcing the rules is far more likely to push them off a financial cliff.
And it’s clearly does nothing to help with levelling the playing field. Even ignoring their own dodgy dealings, the big clubs massively outspend clubs like Everton simply because their football revenues are vastly bigger, and will continue to get bigger as long as they’re able to outspend everyone.
It’s fairly obvious that this is the real point of P&S - to stop anyone new ever challenging the existing status quo.
But what’s the official justification that’s used for it? And why do the rest of the Prem go along with it?
As I’ve asked in other threads about this - can anyone explain what the PSR rules are even officially meant to achieve?
They’re clearly not about trying to protect a club from getting itself into massive debts that they can’t afford to pay. If anything, it’s doing the opposite - owners often have more than enough money, but are prevented from simply giving it to the club because these regulations prevent that.
And they’re also clearly not about creating a level playing field in the way that NFL-style salary caps try to. The big 6 have vastly bigger spending power than everyone else because they have far more money coming in from revenue streams that the regulations see as football-related, such as sponsorships.
We all know what they’re actually achieving - making it almost impossible for anyone new to break into that elite group. But that can’t be the official reason, and doesn’t explain why other clubs don’t force the Premier League to ditch these rules.