Premier League architect slams PSR rules as Newcastle United make 'pot of money' admission

Financial Fair Play needs to be 'scrapped' because it has caused 'havoc'.

That is according to David Dein, the former co-owner and vice-chairman of Arsenal, who helped set up the Premier League in 1992. Dein's comments are all the more striking when you consider that the 81-year-old once said that ex-Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich had 'parked his Russian tanks on our lawn and is firing £50 notes at us'.

By the time financial rules were eventually introduced, in 2013, Chelsea had long established themselves as a force in English football while Manchester City, eventually, followed in the Blues' footsteps after the club's own transformative takeover in 2008. Newcastle, in contrast, have been restricted by PSR rules even if the Magpies have spent upwards of £450m on transfer fees since the buyout.

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Newcastle ended last summer in profit, after narrowly avoiding a PSR breach, and although the black-and-whites made several big-money bids for Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi, Eddie Howe stressed on Friday there is 'no pot of money sitting there waiting to be spent'. Howe instead insisted that complying with PSR was 'the first port of call for us' after Newcastle's scare last June.

Premier League clubs are currently trialling squad cost rules and top to bottom anchoring in shadow, but permitted losses have not risen in line with inflation since the regulations were introduced more than a decade ago and Dein has called for a rethink.

"Financial Fair Play is a bother because it's caused a lot of friction," he told Sky Sports. "In fact, I would say havoc in the league itself.

"You've got litigation between the league and the club and litigation between the clubs and the clubs. It's not healthy. You need a happy environment between all the clubs and the management.

"I'm afraid, at the moment, with Financial Fair Play as it is, it's a huge problem. If I had my way, I'd scrap it altogether and start afresh. It needs a rethink."

Dein's words come at a time when 16 Premier League clubs voted to approve changes to associated party transaction (APT) rules following the top-flight's recent arbitration battle against Manchester City. Newcastle joined Manchester City, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest in voting against the proposals during a meeting of top-flight shareholders in London on Friday.

Aston Villa had warned clubs it was 'abundantly clear that any vote (if passed) will result in immediate further litigation by Manchester City and an associated defence by the EPL, incurring material further costs and unnecessary distraction and devotion of time to this issue'.