Debates about financial regulation in sport often begin with salary caps: strict, transparent cost-control mechanisms common in North American and Australian leagues.

They’re credited with improving competitive balance and financial sustainability, so many might assume English football would follow suit.

While England’s Premier League is preparing the most significant overhaul of its financial rules in a generation, it is avoiding a hard salary cap in favour of a bespoke framework designed for Europe’s promotion and relegation ecosystem and globally fluid transfer market.

So why have these rules been implemented, and will they help address football’s financial arms race, given one of the world’s richest and most financially unequal sporting competitions still refuses to introduce a salary cap?

The Premier League recently announced that from 2026–27, clubs will move away from the Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) introduced in the 2015–16 season, and towards a model centred on

© The Conversation