Leicester City have won their appeal against the Premier League over Profit and Sustainability rules, but HITC understands they remain unhappy.
The Premier League had charged the the Leicester with breaching their PSR rules relating to a three-year period to the end of the 2022/23 season.
However, after being relegated to the Championship the club only filed their accounts after going down, but the Premier League charged them – which could have led to a points deduction similar to those picked up by Everton and Nottingham Forest last season.
Leicester always believed they did not break the rules, but once they were charged the club were understandably worried that they would be punished.
However, an independent panel has now ruled against the Premier League, insisting that the league did not have jurisdiction to bring the charges as The Foxes were no longer members of the league at that point.
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Leicester believe summer window was impacted by charges
HITC can reveal that Leicester, whilst happy to win, are annoyed that these charges were hanging over them for the full length of the summer window which impacted on their ability to attract players.
With a possible penalty of up to nine points on the horizon, Leicester could give no guarantees to any new signing and sources confirm that some signings failed to sign for them because of this.
The Premier League are believed to be assessing whether to appeal the panel’s decision but it is not thought they will.
Explained – what does Leicester win mean for Premier League?
HITC spoke with GRV Media’s Head of Football Finance, Adam Williams for his reaction to Leicester defeating the Premier League.
“As has been well documented, Leicester have essentially had the foresight to shift their accounting date so that they weren’t technically a Premier League club at their year-end.
“They have fully admitted that the exceeded the PSR threshold for the three-year period, but someone at the club has obviously seen that the rules aren’t watertight and made this move.
“You can argue about whether it’s in the spirit of the rules and so on. But from a practical perspective, you have to say it’s a pretty inspired move.
“Leicester aren’t the only team to have shifted their filing date. It’s relatively common practice. Most clubs do it for housekeeping purposes, to push certain costs into one year or another to doctor the balance sheet.
“Wolves, Liverpool and Arsenal all have 31 May year-ends, so they could push them backwards like Leicester have in theory.
“But, although they themselves insist that the moving of the filing date was not done with this intention Leicester are the first team to do it for the purposes of circumventing PSR. And they will almost certainly be the last.
“The Premier League will be talking to lawyers to redraft the rules as we speak. You won’t be able to get away with this in future.”
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