'Makes me laugh' - Peter Ridsdale on proposed Premier League rules as Man United example given

Preston North End CEO Peter Ridsdale has been left puzzled by the Premier League’s financial control trials.

This season, the Premier League adopted a squad-cost ratio system on a trial basis. The system allows clubs to spend a percentage of their revenue on squad-related costs. Clubs involved in European competitions are capped at 70% while clubs not competing in Europe are capped at 85%.

As well as that, the PL are trialling a model referred to as ‘anchoring’. That would cap any club to spend a multiple of the income earned by the Premier League’s bottom placed team. Rules, if adopted, would replace profit and sustainability (PSR) at the start of the 2026/27 season.

Discussing the concepts on talkSPORT, Ridsdale said: “Well, look, football in this country is broken. The success of the Premier League is undoubted; it is one of the biggest success stories in this country for years. When you are talking about anchoring, it makes me laugh. Why are we doing it?

“I think Manchester United’s (wage bill) last year was 300 and something (million). The average wage bill in the Championship is £26m. So, the starting point is, what are we trying to achieve by bringing in anchoring? When you are promoted, even if you are wealthy, the system works against you trying to get into that top six at the moment.

“Then you’ve got issues around associated party transactions, which some clubs have better than others - we have just seen the recent Manchester City case. But, the biggest problem is the distribution of cash right the way through the pyramid, to make sure that the pyramid itself is sustainable, without affecting the success of the Premier League.”

When asked if he is in favour of a salary cap, Ridsdale said: “Well, why? What are you trying to achieve with that? You talk about a squad salary cap here, not a salary cap per se. You then talk about a salary cap of five times the lowest distribution in the Premier League. The distribution this year for the 20th placed team would be £110m.

“That is £550m. That is already £200m more than a club like Manchester United are spending, so it seems to me that you are going through the motions but not actually achieving anything. I haven’t gone through everybody’s balance sheet but there is still a £200m gap there.

“If you are a team like Aston Villa, Forest or Newcastle, why can’t they invest if they want to invest to get into that top six? If I had to choose one or the other I would go for squad cost ratio. I would prefer profit and sustainability, personally, and of course the issue with SCR - based on turnover - is some clubs have got very close relationships with people, associated party, which I would argue is artificially inflating their income.

“What isn’t fine for us at the moment, is we still believe that the amount of money going to the top of the Premier League ought to be filtered throughout the pyramid in a slightly different way. Not taking away the preferential money in the Premier League, because they earn it. But, (there is) a gap between £110m for the bottom team in the Premier League and £11m for the teams in the Championship.”

Your next PNE read: Sky Sports pundits assess Preston’s start