Premier League clubs set to vote on 'salary cap' with Man Utd and Man City the main opposition

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 16 Oct 2025 12:12 BST
• 3 min read

Analysis

Premier League teams are set to vote on a new 'salary cap' of sorts which would have major ramifications for how clubs do business in the English top-flight.

The new system is called 'anchoring' and it involves clubs being restricted to spending at most five times what the lowest-ranked club in the division receives from broadcast revenue and prize money.

The proposals have been put on the table in order to make the league more competitive, at least in terms of resources.

Should the plans actually come to fruition, the anchoring will run alongside a new 'squad cost ratio' ruling which will limit club spend to 85% of their revenue. This is similar to the system currently being enforced in La Liga, though the percentage is different in Spain.

At the moment, Profit and Sustainability rules are in place which which permit losses of £105m over a three-year period. Clubs like Everton and Nottingham Forest have already been docked points and fined financially for being in breach of those rules.

A 25-page draft of proposals and rules has already been presented to clubs with a vote due to take place at a meeting on 21 November.

Who is against the proposals?

The Times reports that the main opponents of the new proposals are Manchester United and Manchester City who have two of the biggest wage bills in the country.

There are opponents in other areas and there are a number of reasons why the plans are unpopular in some areas.

"This will kill the status as the best league in the world and all the money that brings," said one executive. "It feels like we are being sleepwalked into disaster."

Detractors believe that:

- The Premier League does not need to be made more competitive as there have been four separate winners of the competition over the last decade and that five of Manchester City's eight league victories have gone down to the final day of the season.

- The club with the highest spend on wages has won the Premier League in just three out of the last 10 seasons.

- A salary cap would lead to an exodus of elite players from the Premier League to European giants like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain.

- The Saudi Pro League would present much bigger appeal to elite players due to the wages on offer.

- Club owners would simply become much wealthier as they don't need to pay players as much.

- If top players leave, it could impact broadcast revenue down the line.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe of Man Utd said of the proposals: "{Anchoring] would inhibit the top clubs in the Premier League. And the last thing you want is for the top clubs in the Premier League not to be able to compete with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSG – that’s absurd. And if it does, it then ceases to be the finest league in the world."

The Professional Footballer's Association are not supportive of what they call a "hard" salary cap either.

When the proposals first came in March of 2024, the association released a statement which included: “We will obviously wait to see further details of these specific proposals, but we have always been clear that we would oppose any measure that would place a ‘hard’ cap on player wages.

"There is an established process in place to ensure that proposals like this, which would directly impact our members, must be properly consulted on.”

Should the proposals be accepted in November, some clubs will immediately be in breach and could face financial fines as well as one Premier League point deducted for every £6.5 million overspent.