Premier League shareholders have voted to limit the length of new player contracts to a maximum of five years.
Clubs have been known to offer players long-term deals — Chelsea being most synonymous with the practice — in a method of spreading the cost of transfers over several years, thereby allowing the club to operate within Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.
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The clubs voted on the change at a shareholders’ meeting on Tuesday and confirmed that the measure will not be backdated to alter player contracts that have already been signed.
“Premier League Shareholders today agreed to amend the rule on amortisation of player registration costs to bring in line with UEFA’s regulations,” the league said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Going forward, a five-year maximum will apply to all new or extended player contracts.
Amortisation is an accounting practice whereby the total cost of a player’s deal is spread across the course of the contract.
Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly and the Clearlake Capital investment group who purchased the west London club in 2022 have given eight-year contracts to signings such as Enzo Fernández, Mykhailo Mudryk and Moisés Caicedo.
The new measures bring the Premier League in line with UEFA who implemented their own five-year cap on contract lengths in the summer.
The 20 clubs also agreed that the Premier League board should have the power to stop a club from registering new players when they have outstanding debts to another team in the division or the English Football League (EFL).
“Clubs also approved a rule amendment to enable the Premier League Board, in circumstances where a Club owes a transfer debt to another Premier League or EFL Club, to stop the Club registering more players until the outstanding payment has been made,” the Premier League said in a statement.
“The Board can also have the option to deduct the amount from the Club’s entitlement to the League’s central funds.”
The new measures were introduced hours after Tottenham confirmed that defender Destiny Udogie had signed a new six-and-a-half-year deal on Tuesday.
