Former Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow believes that changes are happening to curb the likes of Manchester City spending their way to success.
Purslow, who left his position with the Reds in 2010 following the takeover of the club by Fenway Sports Group (then New England Sports Ventures), now serves as chief executive of Aston Villa, with the Midlands side remaining in the hunt for European football with less than a month of the season remaining.
Man City’s 4-1 home win over current leaders Arsenal put the destination of the Premier League in the hands of Pep Guardiola’s side, whose success over the past 15 has been built on the huge investment that has been made by Sheikh Mansour and the City Football Group.
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City are on course to win what would be their fifth league crown in the last six years, a record only punctured by the 2020 title success of Liverpool. But the Etihad outfit are also facing more than 100 charges from the Premier League over alleged breaches of profit and sustainability rules over a number of years; allegations they refute, but it is a case that is set to rumble on for what is likely to be years.
During City’s period of dominance it has been Liverpool that have been their closest challengers, snapping the winning streak of Guardiola’s men three years ago and coming within 15 minutes of doing it last season, too. This campaign, however, has been one of real struggle for the Reds.
The City juggernaut has continued to rumble on and for Liverpool owners FSG, whose business model at Anfield has always been the success off the pitch dictating what could be done to aid it on the pitch, and vice-versa, maintaining pace with their modern-day rivals has been a challenge, and one that looks set to continue.
Liverpool principal owner and FSG chief John Henry recently told the ECHO that he wanted to see greater cost control introduced to football, something that Purslow, speaking to Sky News, was also keen to see.
The Villa CEO said: “I do agree that there is a widely held opinion, and I share it, that for many years financial regulation has been too lax, too ambiguous, too complex, therefore too difficult to enforce, combined with an unwillingness to enforce. I think that's changing.
“The Premier League now has, for the first time, four independent professional non-executive directors running the board. And it's no coincidence in the last six, eight weeks, two clubs have been prosecuted for financial rules when nobody had been prosecuted for years. So I think it's changing. I want it to change.”
Liverpool's continued challenge - and a criticism that has been often levelled against the owners FSG - is the transfer spend in comparison to their rivals. The Reds, as a business, have become one of the most robust in European football, but despite revenues of £594m for 2021/22, they posted a post-tax profit of little over £2m.
Purslow believes that the relentless spending in the Premier League that was truly kicked off in the Roman Abramovich era at Chelsea and then accelerated by Man City following their 2008 takeover in a period where financial restrictions were not a concern.
“I am profoundly worried about it,” said Purslow. “It is a clear and present danger. I’ll speak as a football fan. I don’t want to look back in 20 years time and say that I was part of a group that were asleep at the wheel. And in 20 years time we look back and three teams, controlled by nations, are the only three teams winning the Premier League ever again.
“How do we stop that? We stop it with what we have today, which is extremely strict financial rules.”
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