PFA Chief Criticizes Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules
Maheta Molango, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), has described the loophole in the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) as “nonsensical.” Molango has called for a change to the rules that encourage academy products to be sold by clubs to balance their books.
According to Molango, the current rules, which allow the sale of homegrown players to be counted as pure profit, have led several clubs, including Aston Villa, Chelsea, and Everton, to take advantage of the opportunity to balance their books before the Premier League’s deadline for submitting their annual accounts on Sunday.
Molango criticized the moves, stating that they are “counterproductive for the players” and that the rules need to be changed. He emphasized the importance of players being included in the discussions around the governance of football, as the current rules “make sense in a nice office with air conditioning but in practice it doesn’t make any sense.”
“The rules make sense in a nice office with air conditioning but in practice it doesn’t make any sense.”
The PFA chief also called for more consultation regarding the Premier League’s plans to introduce “anchoring,” where clubs’ spending on wages, transfers, and agents would be limited to a multiple of the television and prize money revenue earned by the league’s bottom club. Molango believes that the consultation process should be more inclusive and meaningful.
Additionally, Molango expressed his concerns about the Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) decision to move the next edition of the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco to mid-December to accommodate the expanded Club World Cup and the new Champions League format. He believes this decision could negatively impact the chances of African players being signed by English clubs in the future.
The PFA, along with the French UNFP union and the European division of the world players’ union, Fifpro, have submitted a claim against FIFA to the Brussels court of commerce, seeking to “challenge the structure of football’s broken calendar” after the details for next year’s Club World Cup were announced. Molango emphasized the importance of defending the domestic calendar and ensuring that players are not subjected to forced labor due to the intense schedule.
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