Aston Villa’s chief executive has told Sky News he’s “profoundly worried” about levels of spending among the Premier League’s top clubs, and says the backing of foreign governments represents “a clear and present danger” to the league’s future.
Speaking to Beth Rigby Interviews, Christian Purslow said: “I am profoundly worried about it. It is a clear and present danger.
“I’ll speak as a football fan. I don’t want to look back in 20 years’ time and say that I was part of a group that were asleep at the wheel.
“And in 20 years’ time we look back and three teams, controlled by nations, are the only three teams winning the Premier League ever again.
“How do we stop that? We stop it with what we have today, which is extremely strict financial rules.”
He denied that nothing could be done to stop the likes of Manchester City spending their way to success.
“I do agree that there is a widely held opinion, and I share it, that for many years financial regulation has been too lax, too ambiguous, too complex, therefore too difficult to enforce, combined with an unwillingness to enforce,” he said.
But he added: “I think that’s changing. The Premier League now has, for the first time, four independent professional non-executive directors running the board, and it’s no coincidence in the last six, eight weeks, two clubs have been prosecuted for financial rules when nobody had been prosecuted for years. So, I think it’s changing. I want it to change.”
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In February, Manchester City were charged by the Premier League with numerous alleged breaches of financial rules spanning a period from the 2009-10 season to the 2017-18 campaign.
The following month, Everton became the second club to be accused of breaking Premier League financial rules – from the start of 2018-19 to the end of 2021-22.
The Premier League has referred the alleged offences to an independent commission. Both clubs deny any wrongdoing.
Mr Purslow also backed calls for the Premier League to re-examine the takeover of Newcastle United in 2021 by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Court documents, which have recently emerged in the United States, say Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund should be regarded “as a foreign state”.
However, during the takeover of the club, the Premier League said it had received “legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control Newcastle“.
Asked if the Premier League should look again at the takeover, Mr Purslow said: “Yes, I do. And I think they are. And they would.
“If there is a contradiction in representation made at the time of the takeover, as to the nature of the relationship between the rulers of that country – the sovereign wealth fund and Newcastle – of course, the Premier League, I’m sure, are investigating that.”
Both the Premier League and Newcastle United declined to comment when asked by Sky News if an investigation was underway to determine the ownership structure of the club.
When asked about the takeover at a recent meeting of the DCMS select committee, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said he could not comment.
Mr Masters added: “Obviously we are completely aware, and you are correct about the general nature of the undertakings that we received at the point of takeover, but I cannot really go into it at all.
“The only time when the Premier League comments publicly on regulatory issues is when it is charged and at the end of a process when an independent panel has decided whether any rule breaches have actually taken place, and we don’t talk about the investigatory process at all.”
Mr Purslow said the expectation football clubs should turn down takeover offers from countries where human rights are a concern was “unrealistic” if the UK government freely trades with those same nations.
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On the Newcastle deal, Mr Purslow said: “There is nothing in the football rule book that could or would have prevented that takeover. Many people perhaps think there should be and could be, but I think that’s pretty unrealistic.
“You know, if you think about the idea of this country’s relationship with friendly states, with allies, nations on which we rely, I was looking only yesterday, people talking about a potential takeover of Manchester United and the potential for Qatar to be involved in that.
“You know, this is a country on whom we depend for our energy supplies in the last 12 months.
“So, it seems to me wholly unrealistic to imagine a group of football executives, whether the Premier League board or other clubs, to block takeovers of football clubs, when those nations are freely able to trade with our country more broadly.
“What we’re not doing is having a separate set of football rules that somehow trump or override decisions taken by governments on our behalf. I think that’s realistic and sensible. The alternative seems to be crazy.”
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Mr Purslow played down reports the concept of a European Super League could be revived. The breakaway league launched and collapsed within days in 2021 after the plans were heavily criticised by fans, players, and then prime minister Boris Johnson.
“I think it’s dead,” Purslow said. “The reaction to the Super League in all levels of football was profound.
“We initiated rules, black and white rules, an owners’ charter, that makes quite explicit, if any executive of any club tries to enter an unregulated tournament going forward, that club will suffer huge points deductions.
“For me, it was amazingly heartening that the entire football family – fans, clubs, players, managers, even the players and managers of some of those clubs involved, coalesced in less than 36 hours to destroy that concept.”
Purslow, whose career in football has spanned three decades with roles at Liverpool, Chelsea and now Aston Villa, also revealed he had no regrets about working for Roman Abramovich in the years before the former Chelsea owner was sanctioned by the British government and forced to give up the club following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
However, Purslow said he did have qualms about taking the job in the first place. He said: “Yeah, I did. I most definitely did, [but] I don’t regret it.”
Asked if English football should’ve rolled out the red carpet for Abramovich, Mr Purslow said: “That’s a really good question.
“You know, the same is being said today about Abu Dhabi, and Manchester City, and about Saudi Arabia and Newcastle.
“Let’s put it this way, you wouldn’t find a single Chelsea fan who regrets what Abramovich brought to that football club. Under his ownership the club experienced absolutely staggering on-field success, and most fans care most about that.”
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Speaking about the possibility of a government regulator that could redistribute wealth from Premier League clubs further down the league to help ensure financial stability throughout the football pyramid, Mr Purslow heeded caution and said the top clubs had already put measures in place to share wealth.
“Yes, I’m listening to government, light touch [regulation], [only] intervening in real crises, and not providing solutions to the problems that have already been fixed,” he said.
“I like the idea that the government wants to be involved in our national sport. These are hugely important institutions in their communities, economically and socially. So, it’s right they’re interested.”
