English Premier League clubs could be docked points if they fail to comply with new limits on financial losses and curbs on increases in payments to players agreed yesterday.

The measures are designed to help ensure that a five billion pound ($7.85 billion) television windfall brings a new era of financial stability rather than being frittered away on player wages.

The curbs are less stringent than UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) measures which will force top Premier League clubs to move towards breakeven or face exclusion from European competition.

Premier League clubs will be limited to maximum aggregate losses of 105 million pounds ($165 million) over the three years from 2013 to 2016, coinciding with the new TV contracts.

Clubs losing more than that will face disciplinary sanctions which could include point deductions.

The League is seeking to promote stability without preventing owners from investing in their clubs to join the elite as Chelsea and Manchester City have done over the past decade.

“A new owner or even an existing owner with a change of attitude or fortunes, they can invest proportionately a decent amount of money to improve their club,” Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore told reporters.

“But what they aren’t going to be doing is throwing hundreds and hundreds of millions at it in a very short period of time,” he added.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.