Premier League spent over £45m on legal costs in 2023-24 season

The Premier League spent more than £45m on legal costs over the 2023-24 football season in an effort to fight alleged rule breakers.

The body that runs England’s top flight is currently in ongoing disputes having also concluded proceedings on a number of matters across last season.

Everton were hit with two separate points deductions for breaches of Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) relating to losses made versus money spent. Fellow club Nottingham Forest were also punished for breaching the same rules.

Promoted Leicester City survived a Premier League investigation earlier this season, potentially denting hopes of future PSR cases.

The Premier League also has two ongoing disputes with champions Manchester City. The first is by the league and relates to breaches of PSR while the second is by Manchester City themselves relating to the competition’s rules regarding­ ­associated party transactions – City states these rules are noncompetitive.

The case against the Premier League by Manchester City could see a decision announced this week at a Premier League shareholder meeting, where the legal costs for last season are to be disclosed.

Furthermore there is a Premier League investigation into Chelsea relating to alleged irregular payments linked to former owner Roman Abramovich.

Premier League shareholder meeting

According to PA, the league’s chief football officer Tony Scholes will present refereeing and VAR data to clubs from the first weeks of the season at the meeting, which it is expected will show a positive picture in contrast to some of the criticism of officiating from top-flight managers in the opening weeks.

Scholes will also provide an update on testing of new semi-automated offside technology, which clubs unanimously agreed in April to introduce at some stage in the current campaign.

Clubs are also set to discuss the first weeks of the new ‘shadow’ financial regulations which are intended to come into force next season, states PA.

These include the Squad Cost Rules (SCR) which limit spending on squad-related costs at 85 per cent of revenue, and top-to-bottom anchoring (TBA) which effectively creates a spending cap set as a multiple of the central revenue paid out to the league’s lowest-earning club.

This comes as the Football Governance Bill is set to return to parliament for the first time since before the general election in July.