Everton and their Premier League rivals have all been received a warning from the top-flight regarding the fair valuation of players ahead of the June 30 cut-off for the current financial year and PSR cycle The Premier League have written to all 20 top-flight teams to remind them of their guidelines surrounding the fair valuation of players.
ChronicleLive understands the email was issued after a number of top-tier clubs requested clarification on the laws following a frenzy of domestic moves in the run-up to the conclusion of the fiscal year.
Aston Villa signed Lewis Dobbin from Everton just 24 hours after midfielder Tim Iroegbunam moved in the opposite direction for a comparable cost of almost £9 million. Another highly regarded Villa academy alumnus, Omari Kellyman, is close to completing a £19 million transfer to Chelsea, while Ian Maatsen is set to join Villa for £37.5 million. Such mutually beneficial deals will ensure pure profit for these clubs before Sunday, which is the end of the current fiscal year and PSR cycle, while the buying club can spread the transfer fee over five years because the new arrivals will all be given long-term contracts.
It is important to note that no rules have been broken, and from a Newcastle United perspective, the Magpies pulled out of a move for Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin due to the Toffees’ exorbitant asking price, despite Sean Dyche’s team’s strong interest in Yankuba Minteh. However, the Premier League’s legal team made it clear in their letter to all 20 sides that ‘a scenario where a selling club has received an inflated transfer fee for a player in a transaction not considered to be conducted at arm’s length, the selling club would be required to return the amount in excess of fair market value to the buying club’.
The term ‘arm’s length’ refers to how the terms and conditions of the transaction should not differ from those that ‘would have applied between independent persons in comparable transactions carried out under comparable circumstances’.
According to the Premier League rulebook, there shall be ‘no risk of any probable link of material influence existing between the club, a director of the club, and/or a company in the same group of companies as the club as its contracting counterparty’.
The Premier League has reminded teams that they may be asked to give information and documentation to help determine if the transaction was performed at arm’s length. Rule B15 of the handbook states that in all league matters and transactions, each club, official, and director’shall conduct towards each other club, official, director, and the league with the highest good faith’.
If a deal is determined not to have been conducted at arm’s length, the Premier League’s legal team stated in an email to clubs that a fair market value assessment of the transfer will be conducted to ‘determine the value at which the transaction can be approved’.
The Premier League’s handbook lists 18 factors that the independent fair market value assessor must consider, including the player’s age and position; his record, experience, and statistics; his injury history; his brand value and fan base, including his social media following; the scarcity of players with similar characteristics in the market; the competition for his signature; and the clubs’ financial state and relative bargaining position.
