Manchester United voted against imposing a spending cap in the Premier League, talkSPORT understands.
Clubs have agreed in principle to bring in the cap, known as ‘anchoring’, for the start of the 2025/26 season as part of the revamp of the current Profit and Sustainability rules.
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If formally approved at the Premier League’s AGM in June, clubs will be limited to spending a proportion of between 4.5 and 5 times the amount the bottom club earns from TV and commercial revenue on their playing squad.
United were one of three clubs to vote against the proposal along with champions Manchester City and Aston Villa, while Chelsea abstained from the vote.
It is believed United feel it is unfair they would be penalised for self-generating large revenues during their period of Premier League domination.
They and City are also concerned the new measures, designed to level out competition within the Premier League, would risk undermining the competitiveness of the competition’s top clubs up against their leading European peers like Real Madrid.
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Based on last season’s figures a cap of five times the £103.6million bottom club Southampton earned would have seen spending capped at £518million, which would put Chelsea above the threshold.
In order for the cap to be ratified 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs would need to approve it, and there is a belief that a meeting will take place in June to discuss the specific details.
The change would limit clubs from spending excessive fees on transfers and agents, as well as wages.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire told talkSPORT that he believes such potential new rules will affect the summer transfer window: "I think the old rules are more likely to impact the summer transfer market as far as the summer of '24 is confirmed.
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"There will be a lot of toing and froing before June 30th, especially for those clubs who are on a sticky wicket when it comes to compliance with the rules. But once that's over I think we'll be back to full steam ahead.
"The Premier League is incredibly successful and clubs want to be in it and want to progress up the Premier League because every extra position is worth another £3.5million."
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In response to the news, the PFA [Professional Footballers' Association] said: “We’ll wait to see details of proposals but we would oppose any measure that would place a ‘hard’ cap on player wages.
"There is an established process in place to ensure proposals like this, which would directly impact our members, have to be properly consulted on.”
United have been the third biggest spenders in the Premier League over the past ten seasons with an expenditure of around £1.5billion.
Seven of their top ten record arrivals have arrived in the past five years, with notable acquisitions including Harry Maguire and Antony.
