​Manchester, England – December 6: Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris walks on the pitch with his director of football Florent Ghisolfi before the Premier League match between Manchester City and Sunderland at Etihad Stadium. The piece explains that the Premier League is moving away from the Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR), which have long shaped financial regulation in English football, toward a new dual framework starting in the 2026/2027 season. The new measures are the Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) and Sustainability and Systemic Resilience (SSR). SCR caps how much a club can spend on its playing squad in relation to current earnings, while SSR governs the structural health of a club’s finances.
Under PSR, clubs were judged by cumulative losses over a multi-year window, with a threshold (for example, not exceeding £105 million in losses). SCR changes the approach by directly tying on-pitch spending to real-time revenue, thereby preventing wealthy owners from funding a costly squad out of pocket. Specifically, SCR states that a club may spend up to 85% of its total revenue on its first-team squad, though Sunderland would effectively be capped at 70% after qualifying for Europa League, aligning with UEFA’s baseline.
When calculating SCR, two main categories are considered: On-Pitch Spending (the costs) and Football Income (the revenue), which includes matchday income, staff wages, TV rights, sponsorships, transfer fee amortisation, net profit from player sales, and other related revenues and expenses. The article notes the shifting dynamics and hints at ensuring Sunderland’s leadership, including Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Regis Le Bris, navigates the new rules successfully.