Premier League clubs will try to formulate rules next week to control spending and prevent teams from financial collapse.
Executives are open for the first time to restricting salaries, with clubs being asked to consider the merits of determining a maximum percentage of a club's income that can be spent on such players' costs.
High on the agenda is whether to adopt UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules, which require clubs to break even to play in European competitions.
Around a third of Premier League teams are already subject to the regulations, as they play in Europe, with offenders facing being barred from the competition from the 2014-15 season onward after a phased introduction.
The Premier League are unlikely to impose such stringent penalties, preferring instead - if the rules are adopted - to impose fines or transfer bans so owners aren't completely discouraged from pumping money into a club to transform its fortunes.
Manchester City only won its first English title in 44 years in May after Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan invested more than $1 billion in four years.
The Premier League's 20 clubs have been split into two groups geographically to try to come to a consensus on the financial regulations.
The league hopes clubs will back a plan to prove they can guarantee they have the funds to honor players' contracts.
Before being relegated, Portsmouth became the first topflight club to seek bankruptcy protection in 2010 in part due to signing high-earning players on long-term contracts it couldn't afford.
