Leicester could face another points deduction battle this season, with the club required to submit their 2023-24 accounts to the Premier League by the end of December to establish whether they have breached profitability and sustainability rules.
The league will apply a rule introduced last summer to investigate Leicester’s finances at the earliest opportunity, after expressing “disappointment” at Tuesday’s judgment from an independent commission regarding the club’s three-year losses ending with the 2022-23 campaign. The three-person appeal panel ruled the Premier League had no jurisdiction to charge Leicester for overspending during the season they were relegated because the club were in the EFL when the annual accounting period ended on 30 June.
Leicester had been charged with a £24.4m breach of PSR limits, which based on the punishments given to Everton and Nottingham Forest last season would have resulted in the club being docked up to seven points if found guilty. The Everton and Forest sanctions were based on a tariff of a three-point deduction for breaking the rules, and one more point for each £6.5m they were above the limit, before any deductions for co-operating or pleading guilty.
The Premier League is unlikely to appeal against the commission’s verdict but is preparing to take action against Leicester for possible overspending during the 2021-24 period, because based on the judgment released on Tuesday they were a top-flight club at the end of their most recent accounting period on 30 June 2024.
Under PSR rules introduced last summer the Premier League insists that clubs who made losses in the first two years of the three-year accounting period submit their accounts by 31 December so that any disciplinary action and points deductions can be imposed by the end of the season.
Leicester sources have expressed confidence they will not be in breach despite their three-year losses to June 2023 being £129.4m, but the Premier League remains to be convinced. The club’s accounts showed pre-tax losses of £92.5m and £90m in 2022 and 2023 respectively before the Premier League’s deductions for infrastructure spending.
Leicester raised significant funds before this summer’s 30 June PSR deadline by selling Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to Chelsea for £30m, in a deal they booked as pure profit because of his status as a homegrown player, and receiving £30m in compensation for Enzo Maresca, who also moved to Stamford Bridge.
Top-flight clubs are usually restricted to losses of £105m over a three-year period but that threshold is reduced by £22m for each season a club have been in the Championship during the period, meaning Leicester’s permitted losses will be £83m.
Despite PSR rules being described as “flawed” by the independent commission, the Premier League has no immediate plans to redraft them because they are in the process of being phased out. The league has introduced a trial of so-called squad-cost control rules this season, under which clubs’ spending on players, coaches and agents will be limited to a maximum of 85% of their football revenue and net profit/loss on player sales.
The league hopes these rules will replace PSR next season. For clubs competing in Europe the limit is 70%, in line with Uefa regulations.
The EFL said: “We share the frustrations of the Premier League. It cannot be right that clubs potentially escape the scrutiny of the agreed rules and sanctions due to movement across the divisions.”
