Newcastle United set to vote to scrap current Profit and Sustainability rules in favour of new system

Representatives of the 20 Premier League clubs met today to thrash out an agreement over a change to the current Profit and Sustainability rules.

Newcastle United are one of several clubs who are being hampered by the current PSR system, and even mega-rich clubs who have the turnover almost make a mockery of the current rules found it hard to do any meaningful transfer business this winter.

Granted, the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool rarely use the January window anyway, but given that Premier League spending in January was ten times less than it was last year, it was clear that the rules designed to strengthen the Premier League were having the opposite effect.

Clubs were terrified of spending last month

In light of Everton's 10-point deduction and subsequent charge along with Nottingham Forest, clubs were seemingly terrified of spending this winter. If that continues to be the case then how can the Premier League continue to be the elite competition in club football if clubs aren't able to attract the biggest players anymore?

That has set alarm bells ringing in the Premier League and talks are underway to move to a system more in line with the UEFA rules whereby a club can spend a percentage of their revenue. As described by Sky Sports' Kaveh Solhekol.

We don't know if there was anything else on the table as an alternative option as, to the layman like us, this new proposal still looks like a way to fence off the "big six" which was the other issue with the current and previous Financial Fair Play rules.

The disparity is too great now that there is no fair way to police spending

We understand that the rules are there to prevent clubs from spending beyond their means and ending up in financial trouble, but in cases such as ours, where our owners have the resources to spend well beyond the club's current means without putting the club in jeopardy, it becomes more about protecting those already at the top from having too much competition.

It seems obvious to us, and maybe too obvious, that clubs should put aside the money for the operational costs plus an extra percentage for the season, that way they always have the money on hand to bail them out of unexpected trouble, and they beyond that they can spend what they have on players at the owners' discretion. This prevents clubs from going belly-up and, with parachute payments and whatnot, should also stop clubs that get relegated from falling into financial difficulty.

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There are probably issues with that system, we're not financial experts, but at least it gives newly-rich clubs the chance to do what the "big six" have done before them, before they brought in all these rules to keep them separated from the other 14.

We will still have to wait to discover the outcome of these meetings

At the end of the day, there is going to be no fair way to do this as there's so much difference between a club like Luton Town and Manchester City that there's always going to be disparity, but not giving other clubs the chance to catch up is anti-competitive.

Under the current UEFA proposals, according to The Chronicle, even the disparity between what Manchester City will have available to spend on transfers compared to Newcastle United is huge. Newcastle will have a budget of around £175m based on this years revenue, whereas City would have £498m. Of course, Newcastle are working to increase their revenue and are doing so exponentially as things stand, but we're still a world away from catching Man City despite the fact that our owners' wealth dwarves theirs.

Clubs aren't expected to have made any firm decisions today, so we'll not know the outcome for a while yet, but clearly, whatever comes next is going to have its fair share of critics, especially outside that "big six".