Sports
PSR is not perfect, but the Premier League’s shock therapy has had an effect
An air of desperation hung over a handful of Premier League clubs last summer. Accounting years were drawing to a close across the top division of English football and the pressure was on to book profits before it was too late. Player sales were a must if a profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) breach was to be avoided before June 30.
Newcastle United’s business back then was a microcosm of the chaos. They reluctantly agreed to sell Yankuba Minteh, their then teenage winger, to Brighton & Hove Albion for £30million before sanctioning the exit of Elliot Anderson, the homegrown forward, to Nottingham Forest for £35m.
“We had no other option,” their head coach Eddie Howe told reporters in October about those two departures. “We couldn’t breach PSR, couldn’t face a points deduction, and the only two deals we had on the table at that time were the two deals we did.”
Newcastle, who had spent £320million in the first two and a half years under their Saudi Arabian owners, did not want to sell either Minteh or Anderson. Nor, you suspect, did they want to pay Forest £20m for Odysseas Vlachodimos, a third-choice goalkeeper yet to feature for them in the Premier League under Howe. Anderson’s sale, though, was reliant on Forest, who had breached PSR last season and were close to the line again, getting something in return, so Newcastle had nowhere to turn.
Newcastle did not want to lose Minteh to Brighton (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Others were at it, too, with Aston Villa, Everton, Chelsea and Leicester City all concocting their own mutually beneficial deals to chase compliance. Close to £200million, most of it “pure profit”, was collectively banked by those six clubs in June’s final weeks and Tuesday brought confirmation that the trading had been worth it.
A 14-day assessment period of 2023-24 accounts and PSR calculations had not raised red flags within the Premier League and, unlike last January, when Everton and Forest were both charged, there was no cause for disciplinary action to be triggered.
Leicester’s case remains more complex than others, with the Premier League still believing they are on the hook for at least one charge amid the legal challenges back and forth, but 2024, the year of the asterisk, has left its mark.
The three PSR charges heard last season — two for Everton and one for Forest — resulted in a combined 12 points being deducted, the kind of shock therapy that was difficult to ignore.
It may never be known just how close Newcastle and others came to going beyond their spending threshold last season. Clubs’ 2023-24 accounts, which are due to be filed by the end of March, will give us clues, but the absence of transparency in the PSR process makes it difficult to offer fully informed analysis.
Clubs instead have to be judged by their actions and those madcap days of late June revealed anxieties ultimately born out of the penalties handed to Everton and Forest a few months earlier. That jolted the whole of the Premier League, heightening motivation to find quick profits in the transfer market once the season had concluded.
Howe admitted as much — Newcastle had no wish to sell Minteh or Anderson. Certainly not both. But, as Howe, the front-facing figure in that organisation, accepts, there was “no other option” but to accept £65million in transfer fees for the duo if a PSR breach was to be avoided.
Were Chelsea as close to the edge? That is unclear but their compliance owed as much to the sale of two hotels which are part of the wider site at their Stamford Bridge stadium to other companies owned by BlueCo, Chelsea’s parent company, as it did the late sale of defender Ian Maatsen to Villa for £37.5million. Others did not have the luxury of property deals enhancing the numbers.
Maatsen’s transfer to Villa helped Chelsea comply with PSR, but not as much as the sale of two hotels (Matt McNulty/Getty Images)
PSR continues to have its vocal opponents, such as Villa co-owner Nassef Sawiris, who told the Financial Times in June that the regulations were inhibitive and “not good for football”, but last season served the warning that overspending would still carry a sporting cost. Everton and Forest became the bad boys nobody wanted to emulate.
That was obvious with the sudden business done in June, and the wariness has been extended into this season.
Manchester United, traditionally one of English football’s strongest financial forces, have made it clear they have little scope to strengthen new head coach Ruben Amorim’s hand after their heavy losses of recent times. Newcastle also remain bound by financial constraints, with only about £60million spent this season. Villa’s net spend for the season, meanwhile, stood at about £26million going into the current winter transfer window.
Those three clubs could have spent more but learnt last season that punishments would then be unavoidable down the road.
It would not be fitting to congratulate the Premier League on strong governance when 115 charges of financial wrongdoing still hang over four-in-a-row title winners Manchester City and Leicester’s case remains unresolved, but last season served notice that rules had to be adhered to. Points deductions would be in the post to any club not complying.
“The Premier League submits that the only proper sanction is a sporting sanction in the form of a deduction of points,” it argued in Everton’s first PSR hearing, which brought an initial 10-point penalty, later cut to six on appeal. That exact sentence was repeated when Forest faced an independent commission.
PSR has its inconsistencies and imperfections, and might well lead to more scrambled, incoherent transfer business before financial years are out at the end of every June.
But the past 12 months — and no fresh charges this week — have made it clear to clubs that it is a sanction to be taken seriously.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
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The fiancée of Buffalo Sabres star Rasmus Dahlin received a roaring welcome home in her first appearance of the season Wednesday night, months after undergoing a lifesaving transplant after she suffered heart failure during a vacation in France.
Carolina Matovac, 25, was shown on the jumbotron during Wednesday’s game against the Boston Bruins. Fans cheered as she waved, and Dahlin, who was also shown on the screen in a split, cracked a smile at the crowd’s reaction.
Carolina Matovac and Rasmus Dahlin of the Buffalo Sabres pose on the red carpet at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Feb. 1, 2024. (Nicole Osborne/NHLI via Getty Images)
“Welcome home to Carolina Matovac, the fiancée of our captain Rasmus Dahlin,” the arena announcer said. “She is back with us, attending her first game of the season. The Sabrehood loves you, Carolina.”
In an open letter to fans in September, Dahlin shared that Matovac had been feeling ill for several days during their trip, which led to her experiencing “major heart failure.”
“Fortunately, she received CPR on multiple occasions, and up to a couple of hours at a time to keep her alive, which ultimately saved her life. Without her receiving lifesaving CPR, the result would have been unimaginable. It is hard to even think about the worst-case scenario,” he wrote at the time.
Rasmus Dahlin (of the Buffalo Sabres prepares for a faceoff during a game against the New York Rangers at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y., Oct. 9, 2025. (Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)
Matovac remained on life support for weeks before receiving the transplant in France.
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In January, Matovac revealed she was pregnant when her heart failed, adding that her unborn child was the reason she went to the hospital initially.
“You will always hold a special place in our hearts as our first baby, even though we never had the chance to meet. Our love for you is endless,” she wrote in a post on Instagram on what was supposed to be her due date.
“Though you didn’t get to experience this world, you played a vital role in ensuring that I could continue to be a part of it.”
Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin follows the puck in the first period against the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on April 1, 2025. (Marc DesRosiers/Imagn Images)
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Despite taking some time to be with Matovac as she recovered in their native Sweden, Dahlin is second on the team with 65 points, and the Sabres are on the cusp of ending an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Transgender women athletes will be excluded from the Olympics beginning with the 2028 Los Angeles Games after the International Olympic Committee implemented a new eligibility policy on Thursday.
Eligibility for women’s competition will be determined by a one-time, mandatory genetics test, according to the IOC. The test requires screening through saliva, a cheek swab or a blood sample.
No woman who transitioned from being born male competed at the 2024 Paris Summer Games, and it is unclear if any transgender women currently compete at an Olympic level. The new policy, however, aligns with President Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s or girls’ sporting events in the United States.
The eligibility policy approved by the IOC is not retroactive and does not apply to recreational sports programs.
The IOC said in a statement that it “protects fairness, safety and integrity in the female category.
“Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females.”
Until now, individual sports federations determined whether transgender women were allowed to compete in women’s categories, with the IOC providing only recommendations. Sports that placed restrictions on transgender athletes included track and field, boxing, swimming and rugby.
The IOC Executive Board approved the new policy after 18 months of study. It mirrors the guidelines approved by the World Athletics Council in June, determining eligibility for the female category through screening for the absence or presence of the SRY gene.
The IOC policy leans on scientific research that considers the presence of the SRY gene fixed for life and represents evidence that an athlete has experienced male sex development. Athletes who screen negative for the SRY gene will be eligible to compete in women’s sports.
SRY (which stands for sex-determining region Y gene) is found on the Y chromosome. In the cell, it binds to other DNA, leading to testis formation, according to the National Library of Medicine. Even men who lack Y chromosomes still have a copy of the SRY region on one of their X chromosomes, which accounts for their maleness.
Jane Thornton, the IOC medical and scientific director, last year presented to the executive board findings that transgender athletes born with male sexual markers retained physical advantages, even those that had received treatment to reduce testosterone.
Kirsty Coventry, a former gold-medal Olympics swimmer from Zimbabwe, was elected a year ago as the first woman president of the IOC. She campaigned on the importance of protecting the women’s category.
“At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” Coventry said Thursday in a statement. “So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category.”
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Los Angeles Rams star Puka Nacua has been sued for alleged assault and battery by a woman who alleges he bit her on the shoulder on New Year’s Eve and made an antisemitic remark.
The lawsuit was filed this week in Los Angeles, according to TMZ. The suit also cites gender violence and negligence.
Plaintiff Madison Atiabi and her attorney, Joseph Kar, claim Nacua made an antisemitic exclamation that emotionally distressed her when they were together in Century City.
She says Nacua bit her and left teeth marks on her shoulder when they were in a van together later in the night, and she claims Nacua also bit her friend’s thumb.
Puka Nacua of the Los Angeles Rams celebrates after a touchdown during the fourth quarter against the Indianapolis Colts at SoFi Stadium on Sept. 28, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
Nacua’s attorney, Levi McCathern, has already strongly denied Nacua made any antisemitic statements. He described the bites as “horseplay.”
McCathern, said “the whole claim is nothing more than a shakedown attempt” and that the bite “left nothing more than a temporary mark,” according to TMZ.
Nacua previously apologized for performing an “antisemitic” act on a YouTube stream in December. Nacua discussed touchdown celebrations on YouTuber Adin Ross’ stream.
RAMS STAR PUKA NACUA ACCUSED OF BITING WOMAN, MAKING ANTISEMITIC REMARKS: REPORT
NFL Network reporter Jamie Erdahl interviews Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua after a game against the Arizona Cardinals at SoFi Stadium Dec. 28, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
Many, however, believed the celebration perpetuated a harmful anti-Jewish stereotype.
In the video, Ross instructed Nacua to spike the ball, flex and then rub his hands together. Ross, who is Jewish, has referred to the movement as his own “dance” or “emote.”
Nacua received pushback and issued an apology.
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Puka Nacua of the Los Angeles Rams runs downfield during the second half against the San Francisco 49ers at SoFi Stadium Oct. 2, 2025, in Inglewood, Calif. (Brooke Sutton/Getty Images)
“When I appeared the other day on a social media livestream, it was suggested to me to perform a specific movement as part of my next touchdown celebration. At the time, I had no idea this act was antisemitic in nature and perpetuated harmful stereotypes against Jewish people,” Nacua said in a “Stand Up to Jewish Hate” graphic.
“I deeply apologize to anyone who was offended by my actions as I do not stand for any form of racism, bigotry or hate of another group of people.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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