The Professional Footballers' Association has filed a High Court case against the English Football League over revised salary regulations in League One, a move that has provoked fierce resistance from within the EFL.
Third-tier clubs voted in May to amend the Salary Cost Management Protocol, lowering the proportion of turnover that sides can put towards player wages. Teams relegated from the Championship are also now restricted to spending 65 per cent of turnover on wages in their first season at that level, reduced from 75 per cent. Managers' pay has been drawn into the framework for the first time, and clubs are limited to directing no more than 50 per cent of any ownership equity injection towards squad wages.
The EFL's aim is to arrest rapidly worsening finances across the division. Average club losses have climbed from £2.3m in 2021-22 to £7.3m last season, and many League One players are now earning in excess of £10,000 a week.
The union's central argument is that the EFL cannot enact changes of this kind without full agreement through the Professional Football Negotiating and Consultative Committee — a body that also includes the Premier League, the Football Association and the PFA itself. The PFA contends the vote by clubs to bring in the new measures was not consistent with the consultation and agreement process that the PFNCC requires.
The EFL disputes that characterisation entirely. It said it was "concerned and disappointed at the position adopted by the PFA," adding that the proposed changes had been discussed at length through the PFNCC process, including with the PFA, and that those discussions had been taken into account. The league does not accept that the PFA's position is correct.
EFL chief executive Trevor Birch made the case for urgent action, arguing that "financial sustainability and player protection are not competing objectives – they go hand in hand." He said stable clubs were better positioned to honour contracts, pay wages on time and invest in facilities, before warning that growing losses and mounting reliance on owner funding raised risk for everybody. Birch also pointed to the arrival of the Independent Football Regulator as reason for the game to demonstrate it can address sustainability without waiting for external solutions to be imposed.
The proceedings echo a confrontation from four years ago. An independent arbitration panel upheld a PFA challenge in 2021 after the EFL sought to introduce hard salary ceilings — £2.5m for League One clubs and £1.25m for League Two sides — with the panel agreeing the caps were unlawful and unenforceable. The EFL believes the current proposal is a lesser change and should not be assessed by the same standard.
The stakes are already visible on the ground. Oxford United, currently competing in League One, were placed under a temporary registration embargo last month for failing to comply with the new rules. They are unable to register players — including those arriving on loan or on free transfers — and the club has indicated it will be some months before they can satisfy the requirements.
Reporting: BBC Sport, BBC, The Independent, Daily Mail.