Kieran Maguire ‘can’t believe’ £105m West Brom news – ‘it’s a gamble’
It is unlikely that the Premier League will force EFL clubs like West Brom to adopt their Financial Fair Play rules.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the latest political news from Premier League HQ.
The Daily Mail reported last Thursday (19 August) that the top flight wants the EFL to mirror its profit and sustainability rules in exchange for increased funding for the lower division.
Premier League clubs are currently allowed to lose £105million over a rolling three-year assessment period, while EFL clubs are limited to losses of £39m.
The waters are somewhat muddied by the fact that Uefa is soon moving to a new system which will limits clubs to spending 70 per cent of revenue on wages, transfers and agent fees.
It is expected that the Premier League will at some point bring their own FFP system more in line with Uefa’s approach.
But Maguire finds it hard to believe that the Premier League would want the likes of West Brom to “gamble their futures” by allowing enormous losses while they look to spend their way to promotion.
“I find this strange because the EFL have agreed to the small print of the Premier League’s FFP rules,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“In fact, the EFL have probably gone ahead in the sense that they have tightened up the rules in two regards.
“First of all, you are no longer allowed to include profits from property asset sales, which was a rule that was being abused by EFL clubs.
“Secondly, the EFL are now being more explicit when it comes to amortisation. They have effectively said it’s straight-line amortisation or nothing.
“I would be very surprised given that Premier League clubs have a significant advantage in revenue over EFL clubs that they would allow losses of £105m. I don’t really think they would try to force this through.
“Also, it would effectively be saying you want EFL clubs to gamble with their futures by making unsustainable losses.”
In other news, West Brom make move to sign Reading star Lucas Joao