Football finance expert shares what PSR loss limit should now be after being frozen for ten years

Newcastle United have the richest owners in World Football but the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability rules have done a great job of stopping the Saudi Arabian PIF from pumping money into the club to break up the "Big Six".

Aston Villa are in a similar boat of being at the stage to push for honours but being hampered financially by archaic rules. In fact, it was Aston Villa who tried to get the Premier League to increase the current £105 million rolling three-year loss limit should be increased to £135 million to reflect the change in the global financial landscape. But that was shot down at the Annual General Meeting.

Now, though, football finance expert Kieran Maguire has told The Chronicle that even that meagre rise would be way below the actual figure if 10 years of price index fluctuations were accounted for.

Maguire starts off by saying that the £105 million figure was an arbitrary number when it was introduced in 2013 and the fact that it hasn't changed since is 'farcical'.

Serena Taylor/Getty Images

Kieran Maguire says clubs should be allowed to lose £504m over three years based on current wages

Kieran Maguire went on to give some examples of what the loss limit would be if it were actually tied in any way to the finances involved in the sport rather than just being there as a way to stop clubs from upsetting the status quo.

"If the £105m limit had been index-linked in line with revenue of Premier League football clubs, it would today be £249m. If you were a fan of Everton or Nottingham Forest, you would be going, 'How much would we be deducted in terms of points?' The answer, of course, would be a big fat zero. Also, it would have allowed clubs like Aston Villa and Newcastle to invest more and it's very clear from the pronouncements from their owners that's what they would like to do.

"If the limit had been increased in line with Premier League wages, it would have gone from £105m to £230m, which is broadly the same figure, but the most astounding one was if you linked the PSR limit to the increase in transfer fees in terms of players purchased by the Premier League. That £105m would today be £504m i.e. a club could lose half a billion pounds over three years and still be within the limits.

"It does seem that some clubs are getting a raw deal. At the same time, you will have the people who want the limits to be lower saying, 'What happens if there's a change of circumstances with the owner? What happens if the owner loses interest? Or, as we saw with Roman Abramovich, has his assets frozen?' That's a risk in life. That's a risk in business.

"There's a risk that Sky might decide to go and cancel the Premier League TV deal and we saw what happened to the clubs in the EFL when ITV Digital did that. It doesn't mean that we say to clubs, 'You shouldn't go and spend your money from the TV companies in case the TV companies go bust.'"

Football club owners need to be given more credit - they're business people at the end of the day

It's no wonder clubs keep fighting with the Premier League over their rules. The fact that the £105 million three-year figure has remained for over 10 years when a single player can cost more than that is absolutely insane.

As Maguire says, clubs shouldn't be forced to walk a tightrope in case something happens. If they spend all their money and the arse falls out of football, then that's too bad. That's what happens in business every day and the type of people who own football clubs will be well aware of that.

At this point, however, it just feels like the likes of Kieran Maguire and journalists writing about PSR are just shouting into the void now.