Three-quarters of the Premier League's clubs will need to reduce significantly their spending on players' wages if they are to qualify for European competitions after Uefa's "financial fair play" rules are introduced tomorrow. The European governing body's executive committee is set to approve the regulations, which will require clubs to break even, not make persistent losses, from 2012-13.

In 2008-09, the most recent year for which the Premier League's 20 clubs' accounts are published, 14 made substantial losses. One other, Blackburn Rovers, made a £3.6m profit but were subsidised with a £5m loan from the club's owners, which will no longer be permitted.

Most clubs in the Premier League are funded by owners, most spectacularly at Chelsea and Manchester City, where Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour subsidised losses of £47m and £93m respectively. Owners will, according to the rules, be permitted to invest in clubs, via permanent shares rather than repayable loans, to build solid infrastructure such as training grounds or youth development facilities, but not overspending on wages or transfers.

Uefa has taken more than three years to develop the rules since the organisation's president, Michel Platini, warned of the "danger to football" posed by debt, overspending and "rampant commercialism". They will be phased in, with club owners allowed to subsidise €45m (£38m) losses over the three years from 2012-13, reducing to €30m in total over the next three years.

Platini has described the need to staunch overspending as "a question of survival for our sport". In the Premier League, besides Chelsea and City, Aston Villa, subsidised by the club's owner, Randy Lerner, lost £46m in 2008-09, while Sunderland lost £26m. Liverpool lost £55m, principally because they had to pay £40m interest on £250m borrowed from banks. Manchester United made a profit only because of the £81m sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid; in previous years since the Glazer family took over what was then the world's most profitable club and ladled huge debts on to it, United have sustained losses.

The Premier League had argued that clubs should be allowed to be continually subsidised by owners, but was overruled, as Uefa insisted it wanted to steer clubs across Europe to a more sustainable existence. Yesterday a Premier League spokesman acknowledged the clubs will have to rein in their spending in order to comply.

"The vast majority of what is being proposed is common sense, and has already [been], or is about to be, incorporated into Premier League rules," a spokesman said. "If the regulations are introduced as reported, we envisage a difficult period of adjustment for our member clubs who play, or aspire to play, in European competitions."