Sussex’s financial woes have prompted the ECB to consider introducing football-style profit and sustainability rules governing counties’ spending on player salaries.

Sussex will begin their County Championship season against Leicestershire on Friday on minus-12 points after they were placed in special measures by the ECB over the winter. That move was the result of Sussex Cricket Limited posting a £1.33 million operating loss for 2024-25, to which spiralling expenditure on players’ wages was a significant contributing factor.

Paul Farbrace, Sussex’s head coach, announced on Wednesday that he will step down at the end of the season, citing a desire to “give the club clarity”. He had previously told his players that it is a case of “now or never” for their Championship ambitions with the club anticipating several departures after this summer as part of their cost-cutting measures.

Counties are already subject to an annual cap of £3.17 million (£3.52 million for the two London-based counties) on salaries for their men’s squads, as well as a salary collar which provides a minimum spend. But Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, said that he is weighing up the possibility of introducing further regulations linking salary spend to profit.

“There are some learnings that come out of it,” Gould said at Lord’s on Tuesday, when asked about Sussex’s situation. “We’re having discussions in the game about profit and sustainability rules at the moment.

“We already have a salary cap and a salary collar, but we need to make sure that clubs are spending the right amounts of cricket in relation to the income that’s actually coming in. We think that those profit and sustainability rules will be a welcome addition to ensure that clubs don’t trip up.”

The regulations would be similar to those used by the Premier League when governing football clubs’ expenditure on wages. The Premier League will replace existing profit and sustainability rules with a regulation called ‘squad cost ratio’ from next season, which will limit clubs’ ‘on-pitch’ spending.

“We’re just working that through at the moment,” Gould said, when asked for further details. “We might be setting clubs the target of ensuring that they are making a small amount of profit per year over a two-to-three-year period, combined with maximum amounts of money that they can spend, which are already in play. But something like that we think would be a good addition.”

The sale of stakes in the eight Hundred franchises last year has brought significant funds into county cricket over the past 12 months, though the ECB has told clubs that the money must be spent in a sustainable manner. Rob Andrew, the managing director of the professional game, said on Tuesday that counties have already paid down £60 million of debt in the last six months.

“We’re making progress,” Andrew, who previously served as Sussex’s chief executive, said. “There is debt still in the game, but it’s debt that is serviceable and it’s generally against assets – hotels or property. The debt levels are definitely under control now, which is really positive, and there’s a lot of capital for investment.”

Gould added: “The game has never been as well-capitalised as it is today. All of our professional clubs have got money in the bank per se… We’re in a really stable position, but we’re going to use that stable position to ensure that we don’t degrade over the next 10 to 20 years. We’re really setting this up for the long term.”