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By Tony Attwood
As you might recall we have often looked at the issue of the Profit and Sustainability Rules and in particular Leicester City’s response to the rules, which they have challenged in recent years.
And what makes this particularly interesting is that this is not the first time we’ve considered Leicester’s approach to football. Indeed if you want to go back and check you might be interested in…..
- Leicester heading for all-time record number of penalties from December 2020
- Leicester’s curious tackles/fouls/yellow card figures from June 2022
These issues were of course never picked up by the media since the whole essence of them was to challenge not just the probity of Leicester but also the way in which PGMOL officials oversaw Leicester’s games. But almost immediately after we raised these points, matters changed and Leicester’s penalties and yellow card issues came into line with those seen by most clubs.
Of course that could have been just co-incidence each time and there’s no way to prove that PGMOL were not aware of both issues, but simply hadn’t got around to sorthing things out. But it was all quite heart-warming. For the notion that Untold could do the research, express a concern, publish data which showed something very odd going on, and then the matter changed – and changed very quickly – could also be explained through the fact that someone BIG read Untold and told PGMOL to get their act together.
But whatever the cause, Leicester were pulled back into line in both cases, just after we highlighted each issue.
However there may have been an even bigger bonus for since then the authorities have taken a much stronger interest in Leicester, particularly over Financial Fair Play Rules which stated that clubs could spend just 90% of their income on wages, transfers and agents fees in 2023/4, and only 80% in 2024/5.
Leicester of course avoided further penalties because they argued that when they were in the Championship, FFP rules didn’t apply, and the court ruled that yes, the wording of the rules could be interpreted that way. So now, although the rules are the same, the wording has changed and rules for the Championship and Premier League are now linked.
As a result, Leicester City were warned last January about their finances, and not having done enough to rectify the issues identified, they have now been referred to the commission for another breach of profitability and sustainability rules for 2023-24.
Leicester made a loss of £19.4million in 2023/4. That sounds ok, except that they lost a whopping £89.5m in the season before and even whoppinger £92.5m in the season before that. The rules say that the maximum losses over three consecutive years is £105m.
The tribunal which looked at Leicester’s cases after it objected to the previous hearings, ruled that the Premier League can investigate the club for alleged breaches of rules for both its times in the EFL and in the Premier League. Leicester has said they will co-operate but they said that last time, and they haven’t said anything beyond that.
Clubs are of course allowed to lose money, but the level of loss is now reduced to an average of £35m a season, although certain expenditure on women’s football, youth development, stadium work and the community is excluded. In short, what the rules are trying to do is stop clubs spending way beyond their means on players in order to move up a league.
Indeed it can be argued that the fact that the three Championship teams promoted last season have been relegated this season, although not desirable from a competition point of view, does show the new rules are working. The Championship teams on reaching the Premier League have not been able to buy players with borrowed money, in a desperate gamble to try and stay up.
Indeed the three clubs long since doomed to return from whence they came are going to find it hard to buy their way out of the Championship as their losses there are limited to £13m a season.
Meanwhile, Leicester’s technical challenge to their spending in 2022/3 still stands but it hasn’t stopped the Commission from charging Leicester with failing to provide accounts by 31 December 2024, and with not being fully co-operative with the enquiry. And there are signs that some fnas at Leicester is getting a bit cheesed off with the owners’ endless legal battles, with one banner pointing to the fact that in the last three seasons, the club has been relegated twice and lost £200m. Which is stretching carelessness a bit far.
But Leicester might still have one trick up their legal sleeves. As we know Chelsea has sold its women’s team to a club that belongs to the same people who own the loss-making Chelsea men’s team. And they have done that to get around the PSR rules. The League, according to The Times reports that the League has not yet approved the value of the sale of Chelsea Women.
It is evident that clubs like Chelsea and Leicester are tirelessly looking for loopholes and to some extent finding them. All we can hope is that the League closes these gaps as fast as possible and that those who drew up such a poorly constructed set of rules are removed and not involved in any subsequent planning of the next set of financial rules.
But football is very much an old pals’ club, and I’m not convinced the deviant clubs might not get away with more legal gerrymandering.
