Leicester City: What’s next after promotion, Enzo Maresca’s exit and PSR charge

Leicester’s accounts showed they were on track to breach EFL rules by the end of the season, so the league told the Foxes to submit a business plan to ensure they were in compliance.

The club felt it was unfair given they had been in the Premier League for the majority of the time and EFL rules did not apply, with an independent club financial reporting panel ruling in their favor in March.

They were then charged with breaching profit and sustainability rules later that month. They were placed under a transfer embargo before Leicester began “urgent” legal proceedings against the Premier League and EFL.

The club said an embargo was “both restrictive and premature with more than a quarter of the club’s 2023-24 reporting period remaining”. Those proceedings remain open, with Leicester’s options all on the table.

Two weeks later, the Foxes announced losses of £89.7m for 2022-23, although Leicester will have “extras”, including spending on their women’s team and academy, which will reduce their losses in the Premier League calculations.

It means the £215.3m losses over the past three years are not the exact figure they will be judged on.

As Leicester were not part of the Premier League when the new “standard directions” were adopted, which also prescribe a 12-week time limit in which cases should be heard, an independent panel will set the time limit for their PSR hearing.

It is already past the end of the season and they will be a Premier League club before the EFL can do anything themselves if there are breaches for 2023-24.

That means any investigation will be transferred to the Premier League and there could be a second, separate charge if it is decided Leicester were in breach.

There is precedent, albeit a different situation, with Sheffield United being docked two points by the EFL in April while they were a Premier League club.

The Blades will start next season with minus two points after failing to pay out to other clubs in the 2022-23 season when they won promotion from the Championship.

The EFL will always defend its position and given that the clubs have agreed the rules, it is the league’s responsibility to enforce them.

However, there are still too many unknowns with Leicester – and there is still time for them to avoid another breach – to say exactly what will happen.