Finance guru: ‘Mega-rich’ Liverpool have the upper hand as date set for law change vote
The Premier League’s “mega-rich” clubs like Liverpool will have a major advantage if the five-substitutes rule is reintroduced.
That is the view of finance expert Doctor Dan Plumley, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the proposed law change in the top flight.
The Premier League increased the number of permitted changes from three to five after Project Restart in June 2020.
But much to the frustration of Reds boss Jurgen Klopp, the league reverted back to the traditional three at the start of the current campaign.
The Daily Mail reported yesterday (14 March) that Premier League clubs will likely vote in June on whether to bring back the five-subs rule.
Liverpool recorded an annual turnover of £490m in their most recent set of accounts, the third-highest in the division behind Man City and Man United.
Plumley explains why increasing the number of permitted substitutes would favour the Premier League’s financial elite.
“Intuitively, you’d say it favours those mega-rich clubs,” the Sheffield Hallam University expert told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“If you have bigger squad depth, you have more options. Strip it all back. Look at wage spend in line with points picked up. The correlation is pretty obvious.
“But last time around, some of the bigger clubs like Liverpool didn’t take that much advantage of it.
“They might have made one or two when they could have made five. Now, there could have been some other reason for that. I don’t know.
“But if you play the simple numbers game, a bigger and better squad favours you under this rule change.”
IFAB, football’s top refereeing authority, has recommended the introduction of five substitutes on a permanent basis.
The Champions League and most major European leagues currently allow five changes.
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