Have you heard of Louis Dobbin or Tim Iroegbunam? In total, both youngsters have played some games in the English Premier League.
What the two have in common is that they have almost changed places this summer.
Dobbin moved from Everton to Aston Villa for around £10m, while Iruegbunam went the other way for around £11.2m. These two transformations – and many similar transformations – are now causing reactions and controversy in England.
The players' assumed market value is said to be £2 million and £4 million respectively.
– It is a mockery of the rules, the BBC quoted an anonymous Premier League official.
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– This is wrong and not permissible, says another source.
Four clubs in danger zone
Why are we suddenly seeing a series of such 'strange' transfers in the Premier League right now? And why are the reactions so strong?
The backdrop to all of this is regulations called “PSR – Profit and Sustainability Regulations”. A set of regulations have been introduced to encourage Premier League clubs to operate financially sensibly. Clubs could only lose up to £105m over a three-year period.
Clubs that do not adhere to the PSR rules can be punished by deducting points, for example, as witnessed by both Everton and Nottingham Forest recently. On June 30, scores will be settled and many clubs will be at risk of falling under the microscope with huge losses.
The BBC wrote that Everton, Aston Villa, Newcastle and Chelsea are all clubs at risk.
Therefore, it is necessary to sell players before June 30 in order to replenish the numbers. But why are the same clubs also buying players?
Another example can be found in Chelsea. The London Blues are in the process of selling great talent Ian Maatsen to Aston Villa for about 37.5 million pounds, but at the same time the club is buying Omari Keleman from Villa for about 19 million pounds.
The 18-year-old played six games – totalling 150 minutes of football – for Birmingham last season, and many are surprised by the high price tag for a young and inexperienced talent, with his market value said to be around £1m.
In comparison, Manchester United have sold several of their youngsters recently for much smaller sums. Players such as Teden Magny, Zidane Iqbal and Isaac Hansen-Irwin have all gone for what is said to be less than £1 million.
– The amounts that Everton and Aston Villa are getting now are not normal, as journalist Alice Abrahams wrote in a widely shared X post.
– Can exploit the weakness
According to The Times, it appears that clubs have found a loophole in the league's financial rules and are exploiting it.
The income from the sale provides profit and money almost exclusively to the club's coffers, while the purchases can be amortized so that the payment is spread over the period of the player's contract. Therefore, these “swap agreements” are very favorable.
Clubs can put their paws into players they trust for the future, and can get a direct income into their coffers through sales.
– This type of swap deal can be very useful for two or more clubs that need money quickly.
This is what football economics expert Kieran Maguire explains to the BBC.
He describes a hypothetical scenario: If Club A has a young player they want to sell for, say, £8m, and Club B has a young player they want to sell for around £10m, it's easy to exploit this so both clubs can benefit. from him.
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– In the swap, there is nothing to stop them setting the official price at £28m and £30m. So the total cost to one club will still be £2m, but the reported income will be £28m and £30m. That is great in terms of PSR rules, explains the famous financial expert.
– The remaining expenses of such an agreement can be amortized over the course of a five-year contract, such that these costs are “rolled over” to a later date. Since it is almost impossible to determine a specific market price for a player, this exchange agreement can be seen as a way to exploit weaknesses in the regulations. Maguire points out that it is not necessarily the case that they are breaking the rules.
creates feedback
There is no concrete evidence that the clubs involved this summer have concluded such 'back room' agreements, but there is no doubt that the requirements set by the PSR rules could help push up prices if it is beneficial to both clubs over the course of the year. Short-term. condition.
It also raises suspicions that the clubs involved in this type of transfer this summer are essentially clubs at risk of being sanctioned for violating the PSR rules and therefore need to quickly confiscate their income.
The Premier League has not commented on the uncertainty surrounding several transfers this summer, but the BBC reports that at least one Premier League club is considering asking the EFL to look into the circumstances.
For its part, the Daily Mail reported that the English Premier League will conduct a careful review of all transfers this summer, to ensure that no attempts are made to exploit loopholes in the regulations.
The PFA should also be concerned that current regulations may encourage clubs to find “creative solutions” in the pursuit of revenue and that this will ultimately affect the players more than anything else.
At the same time, it is also pointed out that high transfer fees for young players are nothing new. For example, Chelsea put £42m on the table for Manchester City's Cole Palmer last summer, which proved to be a very strong signing for the Blues.
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Newcastle, in turn, paid £45m to sign Anthony Gordon from Everton, which is also a strong signing.
“Putting a value on a former academy player is very difficult, because the price is ultimately what the buying and selling club wants, based on what kind of expectations they have of the player’s contribution on the pitch,” says Maguire.
Chelsea's purchase caused a stir
The use of firefighters in football is nothing new either. Many raised eyebrows when Chelsea traded players for billions of kroner in the January and summer window in 2023, then spread the payments over long contracts of up to eight years.
Examples of this include people like Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Modric, and Moises Caicedo.
The three players in question have contracts with Chelsea until 2032, 2031 and 2031 respectively.
This led to Premier League clubs agreeing a new rule stating that player payments cannot be spread over more than a maximum of five years, although the term of a player's contract could initially remain longer than this.
The European Football Association (UEFA) also adopted a similar rule.
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