A spending cap for horseracing? If football is talking about it, surely we can too

There's a new buzzword in professional sport: anchoring. It follows the news that Premier League clubs spent part of their AGM this week discussing the possible introduction of a spending cap. If approved, the maximum amount each club can splurge on players would be set at a multiple of what the lowest-paid team receives in TV money – hence "anchoring".

It's an unfortunate and provocative choice of word, with connotations of holding in place or perhaps even dragging to the bottom. It took about five minutes from when the concept was first reported for backstage briefing to start about how such a scheme would undermine the big clubs, destroying all that they had worked so hard to build. 'Spending cap could see PSG and Real Madrid blow rivals out of the water', screamed one headline.

It would be a reasonable fear if the cap was likely to be set at an uncomfortably low level. However, reported hypothetical examples had it at around £400 million for the 2021-22 season, higher than the wage bill for every Premier League club that year, so it doesn't seem likely to have a huge impact unless bosses plan on leaving it at that figure for years on end with no adjustment for inflation.