Premier League could make rule change which would put Everton ‘well in the clear’

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Everton have been severely hamstrung by the recent emergence of PSR.

Before this season, it was a phrase seldom heard within the English football lexicon, yet now it dominates seemingly every conversation.

No longer can Evertonians visit Goodison Park and focus solely on the matchday, purely because of the looming threat these regulations pose.

And yet, despite it having already slapped the Toffees with a hefty sanction, the rules could now be set to change.

Kieran Maguire has explained why.

What Kieran Maguire said about the Premier League’s PSR rule change

Well, speaking to Guilia Bould on BBC Radio Merseyside, the finance expert sought to detail what PSR is and exactly what makes it such a flawed system.

He noted: ‘‘Well if we take a look at PSR, it was brought in in 2013 and that figure of £105m was based on the level of wages at the time, the level of money coming into the clubs at the time, and so on.

‘If we index link it, and if you’re a pensioner your pensions index-linked, if you’re an employee your taxable allowance your personal allowance that’s index-linked, well that’s not happened as far as PSR is concerned. So I got my calculator out and I adjusted it for Premier League revenues and Premier League wages. That £105m should be £216m based on the changes in revenue and wages.

‘So under those circumstances Everton would be well in the clear.’

There was then an understanding that something has to change: ‘I think the Premier League acknowledges that the system is not working correctly.

‘UEFA have decided that they are going to abolish their version of PSR which is very similar to that of the Premier League, and they’re going to replace it with a squad cost cap, effectively a wage cap, so that for every £100 that the football club generates it can spend no more than £70 on footballers wages, just footballers wages, agents fees and your net transfer costs.

‘And therefore that is index-linked because if more money comes into the club you can spend more money, so UEFA are acknowledging that the old system wasn’t flexible enough.

‘I think the Premier League are going to say ‘Well it’s crazy to have one set of rules for those clubs in UEFA and another for those in the Premier League so let’s replicate what’s happening in Europe and we’re going to apply that to all twenty Premier League clubs’.’

Everton are a club of firsts

As one of England’s most historic clubs, Everton have been the first to do many things in England and the wider footballing world.

The Toffees were one of the founding members of the football league, all the way back in 1888, and again were there for the inception of the Premier League too.

They were the first to wear numbers on their backs, the first to have a purpose-built football stadium, and the first to go on an overseas tour.

The examples are endless, and only lend to the rich history ingrained in Goodison Park.

However, more recently the records being broken have not been good ones.

And now, with this proposed rule change, they are set to be the first, and likely the last, to receive a sanction as harsh as the ten-point deduction they ultimately accrued back in November.

A fitting indicator of how the club has regressed over the years, they will hope that upon moving into the Bramley-Moore Dock stadium, a new era can wash over this part of Merseyside, to allow them to start forging a brighter future where they can once again innovate.