Crystal Palace co-owner John Textor has criticized the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR), suggesting that they are biased and prevent ambitious clubs from challenging the dominance of the so-called big six teams.
The PSR rules were introduced in 2013 to level the playing field and prevent clubs with rich owners from spending vast sums of money.
However, Textor believes that these rules limit opportunities for smaller clubs to challenge more established teams with bigger fanbases.
Under the PSR rules, clubs face the risk of point deductions for incurring losses of more than 105 million pounds ($133 million) over three years or 35 million pounds a season.
Although clubs can balance out the outlay with the revenue they generate in that period, Textor argues that this is not enough to create a truly level playing field.
According to Textor, the PSR rules are designed to ensure that clubs that do not drive significant revenues cannot catch up to the more established teams.
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He further argues that the term “financial fair play” is a fraud, as it does not focus on sustainability, which should be about the quality of a club’s balance sheet, not just ratios against their profit and loss.
At the Financial Times Business of Football summit, Textor spoke about how his club, Crystal Palace, is affected by the PSR rules.
Despite having three billionaires in its ownership group, Palace is not allowed to spend at the level of teams that are in the top six.
Textor also criticized the possible points deduction that Nottingham Forest might receive for breaching PSR.
Upon their promotion ahead of the 2022-23 season, Forest’s owner Evangelos Marinakis splashed out the cash as the club broke the record for most transfers (21) by a Premier League team in the close-season window.
However, this could lead to a point deduction for the club, which Textor believes is unfair.
In conclusion, Textor believes that the current PSR rules are biased and limit the scope of smaller clubs to compete with the bigger teams.
He argues for a more sustainable approach that takes into account a club’s balance sheet rather than just ratios against profit and loss.
