Premier LeagueAdd to myFTGet instant alerts for this topicManage your dery channels hereRemove from myFTThe Football Game: how financial rules changed the Premier Leaguefit and sustainability regulations are dividing s and fans a.
A new FT game challenges players to navigate the restraints and lead their to glory© Samar HaddadThe Football Game: how financial rules changed the Premier League on x (opens in a new window)The Football Game: how financial rules changed the Premier League on facebook (opens in a new window)The Football Game: how financial rules changed the Premier League on linkedin (opens in a new window)The Football Game: how financial rules changed the Premier League on whatsapp (opens in a new window) The Football Game: how financial rules changed the Premier League on x (opens in a new window)The Football Game: how financial rules changed the Premier League on facebook (opens in a new window)The Football Game: how financial rules changed the Premier League on linkedin (opens in a new window)The Football Game: how financial rules changed the Premier League on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Josh Noble, Sam Joiner, Nassos Stylianou and Dan Clark in LondonPublishedAugust 23 2025Jump to s section this pageUnlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly .Football’s financial rules have never been so front of mind for executives and fans a.
Since 2023, four s have been charged with the Premier League’s spending rules, while team owners increasingly complain that the “bean counters” have taken over the world’s most sport.
We wanted to find out what being one of those bean counters involves — a fitting perspective for the Financial Times.
So we decided to put readers in the hot seat as the chief executive of a fictional , Pinkham United, to see how hard it is to navigate the competing demands from fans, coaches, players and financial regulators.
FootballCan you run a Premier League football ?The Premier League’s fit and sustainability rules (PSR) have been around for some time, although they are frequently being reassessed and tweaked.
The stated aim is simple: to prevent s from running into financial trouble through overspending.
History is littered with examples of ambitious owners overextending in pursuit of sporting success, only to run out of money or lose interest, leaving s and their fans to pick up the pieces.Defenders of the rules believe they are also needed to help keep a lid on inflation in the transfer market, a more acute concern since Gulf states started getting involved in European football.
Despite multibillion-pound TV deals, most football s lose money because they spend too much on signings and wages.
As more fessional investors take an interest in football, the calls to cap spending keep growing.
The basic PSR framework is straightforward: a is not allowed to lose more than £105mn over a rolling three-year period.
So an expensive summer of transfer spending must either be accompanied by a bump in revenue or ed by a period of frugality.
When playing the game, keeping losses in check is your primary goal, but you must also vide the manager with the tools required to be successful on the pitch — and keep the fans on side.
As you will discover, running a football and achieving all three is complicated. © Samar HadadThis game was created by the FT with financial modelling vided by Ankura, a consultancy and advisory firm.
The data is based on a fictional set of financial results, covering a three-year period, modelled on a mid-table Premier League ’s results.The accounting rules leave plenty of wriggle room for how both revenue and spending are recorded in the books.
Some complain that s now take too many decisions based on staying within financial regulations rather than sporting merit or any long-term plan.
For example, a might choose to sell a player developed through its youth system simply because grown talent can be recorded as pure fit in the accounts, un a player previously bought from another .
New signings might be given long contracts to help spread out the amortisation costs of the transfer fee.
assets that bring in recurring revenues — such as a hotel, music venue or women’s team — might be sold to generate a one-off gain in the accounts.
Or as Nassef Sawiris, the billionaire co-owner of Aston Villa, put it last year: “Managing a sports team has become more being a treasurer or a bean counter rather than looking at what your team needs.
It’s more creating paper fits, not real fits.
It becomes a financial game, not a sporting game.”© Samar HadadCritics complain that the current rules in effect penalise investment and so make it too difficult for ambitious smaller s to challenge the elite.
Newcastle United, for example, has not been able to outspend rivals despite being owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which has more than $925bn in assets.
The must generate its own funds in order to spend.
And with less commercial muscle than the Premier League’s biggest earners, such as Manchester United and rpool, that makes competing on the pitch difficult.The Premier League has acknowledged the shortcomings with PSR and is in the cess of devising a new financial system.
Uefa, European football’s governing body, has already altered its own spending rules so that it links to revenue rather than losses. English football is ly to move to a similar model.
But changing the rules requires apval from 14 of the Premier League’s 20 s, something that is becoming harder to achieve.
Some owners are reluctant to deprive themselves of a potentially useful accounting loophole they might want to use in the future, especially if others have already benefited from it.
For example, the Premier League posed changing the rules to stop s selling assets to their parent companies and booking the fit in the accounts.
Chelsea FC’s private equity owners have previously sold two hotels and their women’s team to holding company BlueCo, helping the London record a fit in the 2023-24 season despite heavy transfer spending.
Yet Chelsea’s rivals chose to let the practice continue. For those in the boardroom, every choice — from picking a sponsor to selling a star player — has an impact on the bottom line.
Many of them also through on to the pitch. Is it possible to keep everyone happy? Our game will help you find out the answer.Can you run a Premier League football ?
Play our new game to find out.Reuse this content (opens in new window) sJump to s sectionmoted Content the topics in this article UK financial regulation Add to myFT rpool Football Add to myFT Newcastle United Football Co Ltd Add to myFT Arsenal Football Add to myFT Manchester United PLC Add to myFT s