Nottingham Forest and many of their Premier League counterparts must be wary of falling foul of the new, more stringent, rules
It has been revealed that Nottingham Forest and their Premier League opponents may be subject to punishment from the football association if they attempt to negotiate sponsorship agreements or investigate player transfers to teams or groups connected to their owners.
Olympiacos, a repeat winner in his home country, and Rio Ave in Portugal are two of the Greek businessman’s abroad clubs in which Forest is partnered. Olympiacos has been led by owner Evangelos Marinakis since the spring of 2017.
The original rules, which have been revised and now, as a result, are more stringent than before. They have been introduced in order to prevent top flight clubs from increasing revenue and strengthening their squads directly via their owners by ensuring that transfers conducted within clubs of the same ownership group remain at the market value and to ensure they aren’t earning unfair amounts of money through sponsorship.
Any club who is deemed to be in breach of the new, tighter, rules will be subject to sanctions from the league, reports The Times. All clubs must use “all reasonable care” when exploring moves for players within those ownership groups. In the event that a club is found to be in breach of the rules, then an independent commission will be able to inflict any penalty it wishes, depending on the severity of the transgression.
There is talk of a “bitter split” between clubs in ownership portfolios and those that aren’t as a result of the new laws. When the Premier League introduced the restrictions last month, a number of teams, notably Manchester City and Newcastle United, voted against them.
The league’s handbook states that it will “seek to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of clubs by extinguishing reliance on enhanced commercial revenues received from entities linked to the club’s ownership” , while encouraging “fairness amongst clubs, so that clubs are not able to derive an unfair advantage over domestic competitors by increasing revenues or reducing costs via arrangements with entities linked to a club’s ownership” .
Surprisingly, Wolves, Tottenham, Luton, and Fulham are the only Premier League teams without a connection to another club; the other 16 teams are all a part of a larger football organisation. Owners of Chelsea and Arsenal, respectively, include Stan Kroenke of Arsenal and Todd Boehly of Chelsea, who owns a share in Strasbourg, an MLS team.
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