Premier League chief executive Richard Masters fears this year’s Club World Cup could create “huge difficulty” for Manchester City and Chelsea ahead of next season’s English top-flight campaign. The two clubs will represent England in Fifa’s expanded 32-team tournament in the United States, where players’ unions are threatening legal action on welfare grounds and the National League is unhappy about the potential knock-on effects on its competitions. The Club World Cup final is due to be played on July 13, with the 2025-26 Premier League season due to start on August 16.
“The leagues and players’ unions are not happy with the decisions that are being made at a global level,” Masters told Sky Sports. “We’ve seen the Club World Cup coming up and that will obviously have an impact on the Premier League.
“If Manchester City or Chelsea reach the final of that competition, the Premier League starts four weeks later and all the players are supposed to have three weeks off as part of their contractual obligation,” he added.
“So how does that work? Very hard I would say.”
Meanwhile, Masters insisted that English football is “not on the brink of a financial cliff” as he reiterated the Premier League’s concerns about the potential impact of an independent regulator on the game.
The Premier League spent more than £45 million ($56 million) in legal costs during the 2023/24 season as it tried to maintain its rules amid challenges from clubs.
There will be additional and significant legal costs this season for the Premier League as the major disciplinary case against Manchester City continues.
The 2023 title holders have been charged with more than 100 alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules.
The case was heard by an independent commission from September to December, with the outcome now pending.
City have also challenged the legitimacy of the league’s Associated Party Transactions (APT) regulations, which seek to ensure that deals with organisations linked to a club’s ownership are at fair market value.
The aim of both the current and previous UK governments in backing an independent regulator is to protect the financial sustainability of clubs in the top five tiers of English football.
However, Masters insisted that too much regulation could damage the excitement on which the Premier League thrives.
“We have that risk, we have that constant buzz of compelling entertainment,” he said.
“There are a lot of different reasons [for the Premier League’s global popularity] but I think that’s what separates us from others.”
“We’ve always been a pro-investment within measured risk. The Premier League is not a pension fund, it’s a place where capital is put at risk. There’s no certainty of the outcome – that’s one of the things that makes it interesting.
“We’re concerned that the new regulatory function could be risk averse and could inhibit clubs’ ability to invest. “The ability to invest is the key to competitive balance, and that’s the risk I’m talking about.”
