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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsPremier League PSR and UEFA’s financial rules are different tests—and PSR is no longer the Premier League’s live system. PSR governed domestic assessments through 2025/26, while UEFA’s 2026 financial sustainability framework combines solvency checks, a football-earnings test and a squad-cost limit. From 2026/27, the Premier League replaced PSR with its own Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) and Sustainability and Systemic Resilience (SSR) rules. So a comparison today needs to distinguish historical PSR from current domestic rules, and both from UEFA’s separate requirements.
“FFP” remains common shorthand, but UEFA’s current framework is the Club Licensing and Financial Sustainability Regulations. The rules apply to clubs seeking UEFA competition participation; Premier League rules apply to Premier League clubs under the League’s own regime.
How do PSR and UEFA’s rules compare?
| Question | Premier League PSR (through 2025/26) | UEFA financial sustainability rules (2026 edition) |
|---|---|---|
| What is the main test? | Adjusted profit and loss over an assessment period | Three pillars: solvency, football-earnings stability and squad-cost control |
| Who is covered? | Premier League clubs | Clubs subject to UEFA licensing and monitoring for participation in UEFA competitions |
| How is compliance checked? | Annual assessment, ordinarily over three years | Quarterly overdue-payables checks, football earnings across three monitoring periods, and a squad-cost calculation for a licence season |
| Who enforces it? | The Premier League’s independent disciplinary process | UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) |
The central difference is the kind of financial risk each system measures. PSR asked whether a club’s adjusted losses stayed within a multi-year limit. UEFA has that broader stability-and-solvency perspective too, but it also sets a distinct ceiling on defined squad costs relative to defined revenue and transfer items.
What did Premier League PSR measure?
An adjusted loss calculation
For each assessment, the Premier League started with a club’s profit or loss after depreciation and interest but before tax, then applied permitted adjustments to produce its PSR Calculation. The relevant calculation aggregated adjusted earnings before tax over the assessment period, ordinarily a rolling three years. It was therefore not a simple cap on wages or a player-cost-to-revenue ratio.
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The loss allowance and Championship adjustment
The ordinary maximum permitted aggregate loss was £105 million across three years. The limit fell by £22 million for each season the club spent in the Championship during that period. The effective allowance therefore depended on the club’s league status as well as the adjustments allowed in the accounting calculation. The Premier League’s 2024 explanatory statement describes the headline threshold and broad approach; it is not a substitute for the applicable historical handbook when assessing a specific club or case.
What does UEFA’s 70% squad-cost rule include?
A defined ratio, not just wages divided by revenue
Under the 2026 UEFA regulations, the squad-cost ratio must not exceed 70%. Its numerator includes employee-benefit expenses for relevant persons, amortisation of relevant persons’ player-registration costs, loan income and expenses, and certain costs involving agents, intermediaries or connected parties. Its denominator includes adjusted operating revenue, net profit or loss on disposal of relevant registrations, impairment, and other transfer income or expenses.
That definition matters: calling the rule a “70% wage cap” leaves out registration amortisation, loan transactions and specified agent-related costs, as well as transfer-related items in the denominator. The UEFA regulations also prescribe different time treatments for inputs. Many costs and revenues generally use a 12-month period; specified disposal and other transfer items use a 36-month period prorated to 12 months. The operative provisions are in Articles 93 and 94 of the 2026 regulations.
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Two other UEFA pillars
- Solvency: UEFA checks quarterly for overdue payables to clubs, employees, UEFA, and social or tax authorities.
- Stability: The football-earnings rule compares relevant income and expenses over three monitoring periods, subject to a permitted acceptable deviation.
- Cost control: The squad-cost rule limits the defined ratio described above.
Passing the squad-cost test alone does not establish compliance with every UEFA financial requirement: the solvency and stability pillars are separate checks.
Is the Premier League’s new SCR the same as UEFA’s 70% rule?
No. The Premier League says its 2026/27 SCR limits on-pitch spending to 85% of football-related revenue and net profit or loss from player sales, with additional headroom under its system. It describes SCR as focused on on-pitch spending, with season-specific limits and in-season monitoring, unlike PSR’s multi-year assessment of overall financial performance.
The Premier League presents SCR as bringing its approach closer to UEFA’s squad-cost rule, but the two regimes are not interchangeable. Their headline thresholds differ—85% for the League’s SCR and 70% for UEFA—and their definitions, covered clubs, calculations, exceptions, monitoring and sanctions are set separately. A club may need to meet both if it is subject to Premier League rules and seeks UEFA competition participation.
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The timing is important. The Premier League says clubs had to comply with PSR in 2025/26 while SCR operated in shadow without enforcement. SCR and SSR took full effect from the start of 2026/27; levies under the new system are payable only for breaches in 2027/28 onward. PSR still matters for earlier assessment periods and any enforcement arising from them.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What happens when a club breaches the rules?
Premier League PSR cases
PSR cases went through the Premier League’s independent commission process, with appeals handled by an appeal board. Points deductions have been imposed in published cases, but there was no single automatic deduction that followed every breach. For example, an appeal decision confirmed a six-point deduction for Everton relating to the period ending in 2021/22. The outcome depends on the case and the applicable process.
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For a squad-cost breach, UEFA’s financial measure depends on how far the ratio exceeds the limit and on the club’s breach history in the current and previous three licence seasons. UEFA permanently withholds the measure from competition solidarity and prize money; if those funds do not cover it, the club may have to pay the remainder. Significant breaches can also result in additional disciplinary measures. This is a different enforcement system from the Premier League’s domestic process.
Quick Recap
Which rules should a reader use when comparing a club?
- For a historical Premier League PSR assessment: identify the assessment period, the club’s league status in each season, the permitted accounting adjustments and any relevant case decision.
- For a Premier League season from 2026/27: look to SCR and SSR rather than treating PSR as the current domestic test.
- For UEFA participation: consider the separate solvency, football-earnings and squad-cost requirements in the applicable UEFA regulations.
- For a club subject to both regimes: do not assume that passing one test means passing the other. Similar aims do not make the calculations or enforcement interchangeable.
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