For months we’ve heard whispers about “anchoring” a hard cap that would’ve tied every club’s spending to the money earned by the bottom team in the league.
In simple terms: however rich you are, you’d still be chained to whoever finished 20th. That plan is now dead in the water. Clubs voted it down: 12 against, 7 in favour, Burnley abstaining.
Why? Because anchoring was basically a salary cap in disguise. It scared the life out of:
- The big guns (City, United and others) who don’t want their spending power pegged to the league’s weakest revenue.
- The players and agents, who were already threatening legal action over what they saw as a restriction of trade.
Instead, the clubs have gone for something more modern, more flexible – and honestly, pretty smart.
Enter Squad Cost Ratio: football’s new speed limit
From next season, the Premier League moves to Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) a rule that says:
You can’t spend more than 85% of your football revenue + net profit on transfers on “on-pitch” costs – wages, transfer amortisation, agents, coaching staff, the lot.
Go over 85% (the green zone) and you’ll eat financial fines.
Push it past 115% (the red zone) and we’re talking sporting sanctions likely points deductions.
This is huge. It replaces the old Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) that were all about total losses over three years. Instead of arguing over accounting tricks, we’re now staring straight at the football core:
How much of your real football income are you burning on the squad?
Big clubs can still flex. But they have to be efficient, not reckless. Smaller clubs can push harder too – but only if they actually grow their revenue. This is meritocracy with a calculator.
SSR: the “are you actually a serious club?” test
On top of SCR, clubs also unanimously approved Sustainability and Systematic Resilience (SSR) a mouthful that basically means:
- Prove you’ve got enough cash to survive a season.
- Show you can take a hit like relegation without collapsing.
- Don’t bury yourself in stupid levels of long-term debt.
Think of SSR as the “you’re not doing a Derby or a Bury on us” rule. It’s the league asking every owner:
You love the badge? Cool. But can you actually pay the bills when it goes wrong?
So what does this really mean for us fans?
Here’s the real beauty of it:
- No hard salary cap: the Premier League keeps its edge over other leagues. The biggest clubs can still go for the Galáctico moves but they have to fund it properly.
- Smarter recruitment becomes king. You can’t just paper over bad scouting with another £80m panic buy. Blow your ratio and you risk points deductions.
- Ambitious “smaller” clubs now have a clear path: grow revenue, recruit well, and you can genuinely push up the table without being financially punished for dreaming.
It’s not perfect. Nothing in football politics ever is. But this combo of SCR + SSR feels like the league finally admitting:
“We want drama on the pitch not in court documents and HMRC files.”
And just to sprinkle some fixture magic…
The Premier League also decided to:
- Start the 2026 – 27 season a week later on 22 August 2026 to give players a breather after the World Cup.
- Bring back a fuller Boxing Day slate, leaning into that pure old-school festive chaos we all live for.
In one meeting, the clubs:
- Killed off a rigid, lawsuit-magnet system (anchoring).
- Replaced clunky PSR rules with something sharper and more football focused.
- Tried to protect both the spectacle and the soul of the league.
If they get this right, we’re heading into an era where the smartest clubs not just the richest dominate.
And as a fan, that’s the kind of tectonic shift that makes you sit back, look at the table, and go:
“Wow. The next decade of the Premier League just got serious.”
