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The Premier League announced a series of
stringent new rules regarding club ownership, finance and tax reporting on
Tuesday to avoid a repeat of the crisis that brought Portsmouth close to
extinction last season.

“We now believe we have the measures in place,
the early warning system and the rules regarding change of ownership which will
enable us to reduce the risk of having a repeat of the Portsmouth situation,”
Chief Executive Richard Scudamore told a news conference.

“We have reduced the risk to extremely unlikely
proportions.” Portsmouth, who had a series of owners last season, were
relegated from the Premier League at the end of the campaign after amassing
debts of over 120 million sterling to tax authorities plus tens of millions
more to other creditors.

They went into administration in February,
suffering a nine-point penalty deduction, but would have finished bottom of the
table even without that.

The rules stipulate that both financial and
personal credentials of prospective owners will be closely scrutinised.

Any such bidders for the Premier League’s 20
clubs will have to prove they have the necessary funds to carry through a
takeover and to sustain the team for a year.

The Premier League’s Board has been empowered to
request a direct meeting with any potential buyers and to obtain information
from member clubs every quarter to ensure all tax and social security
contributions are in order.

The Premier League will also have the power to go
directly to tax authorities to ensure payments are up to date.

Individuals barred by other sporting
organisations will not be allowed to become a Premier League club director.

Reduce risk

“The object of the Premier League is to reduce risk to try and
prevent the worst happening, but ultimately we cannot eliminate risk entirely
because that would involve us interfering almost as shadow directors and
running clubs and we are not going to do that,” Scudamore said.

“We are not going to entirely eliminate the risk of a club
putting itself in an over-extended position but, by the measures we now have in
place, we can reduce that risk to a minimum.” He added that Portsmouth’s
mismanagement had damaged the League’s reputation and the worst of its problems
would have been avoided if the new rules had been in operation.

“There is reputational damage when you have a Portsmouth
situation. Those sort of headlines are not good.

“It is reputationally difficult because everyone gets tarred
with the same brush. The clubs that have run themselves extremely well,
prudently and sensibly, get tarred with the same brush that football is a
financial basket-case which it is not.

“Therefore, you have to do things that protect you from that
reputational risk and there was a mood to do that.” Scudamore said that the Premier
League’s turnover in the coming season would reach 1.2 billion pounds–an 18
per cent increase over last season.