Richard Masters is ‘not quite sure’ how the Premier League can stop clubs cashing in on academy graduates after Newcastle United CEO Darren Eales called for a rethink.
Although the sale of Elliot Anderson helped Newcastle avoid a points deduction, Eales said it was ‘perverse’ that top-flight clubs were effectively rewarded with pure profit for trading youngsters and the chief executive suggested that PSR rules needed to be ‘looked at’. Damian Vidagany, meanwhile, who is Aston Villa’s director of football operations, claimed the system was ‘killing the spirit of football’ by ‘forcing’ clubs to let academy players go.
Premier League clubs have agreed to trial squad cost rules and top to bottom anchoring in shadow alongside the longstanding PSR regulations this season and Masters has been asked if the top-flight could try to protect academy graduates or incentivise clubs to keep homegrown players rather than moving them on.
Players that generate the most profit are sometimes utilised in different spending plans that people have and in investment plans over a three-year period,” the Premier League chief executive said. “So I’m not quite sure how you apply accounting principles and avoid that outcome.
“I do understand the point, but I think there is a huge opportunity for young players, young homegrown players in the Premier League at the moment
“I think it’s one of the great stories of the last 10 years, the fortunes of the England team being transformed by the investment that’s been made in the academy system, not just across the Premier League but across the EFL as well. The story around young players in this country is a really positive one.”