Aston Villa and a number of other Premier League clubs have been exploiting a transfer ‘loophole’ that allows them to comply with spending rules.
It is no secret that Aston Villa need to raise funds prior to the 30th June Premier League Profit and Sustainability Regulations (PSR) deadline; even with Champions League qualification.
It is for that reason that Jhon Duran and Douglas Luiz both look set to leave the club imminently and Villa have already sold youngster Tim Iroegbunam to Everton for £9 million.
That deal in particular is significant, as Iroegbunam’s transfer represents exactly the sort of deal concerning both the Premier League and academy director’s in England.
Aston Villa exploiting homegrown player switches
Iroegbunam has made just 12 Villa appearances but Everton have seen fit to splash £9 million to sign the 20-year-old.
Everton are another club at risk of breaching PSR, with Chelsea also in danger.
Therefore, it is no surprise to see these clubs trading players amongst each other in order to comply with the rules designed to prevent reckless overspending and safeguard the future of football clubs, as well as the integrity of the competition.
Iroegbunam has joined Everton and Villa have signed a youth product in return in Lewis Dobbin for a fee believed to be in the region of £10 million.
Likewise, Chelsea are set to sign 18-year-old Villa youth player Omari Kellyman for £19 million with the Villans looking to sign Ian Maatsen in return.
The reason for this is that academy players are considered homegrown and their sales count as pure profit.
This means that the club have, in accounting terms, spent no money on these players so can put the whole transfer fee down as profit in their finances.
The fees are highly inflated but this is deliberate. By two clubs selling to each other and inflating the prices they can put more income as profit in their books ready to submit to the Premier League ahead of the upcoming PSR deadline.
Premier League looking to close ‘PSR Loophole’ Aston Villa using
These kind of deals are expected to be very common this summer, but they may not be possible for too much longer.
According to I News, few top flight clubs are ‘truly happy with the situation’ given it ‘incentivises the selling of homegrown players’.
In effect, the current way of working means there is a lot of benefit to simply developing young players ready to sell them on for pure profit rather than providing a pathway to the first team.
The I report that it is their understanding that there is the ‘possibility of a Premier League working group looking into the issue, which is worrying academy directors’ and they ‘want this PSR loophole closed’.
How they will do that remains to be seen, but it will certainly be interesting to see how they can avoid these kind of deals taking place in future.
For now, though, it looks as though Villa will continue to exploit this loophole for their own benefit although it may harm their academy long-term.
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