Salary Cap in English Football

[Dida]

I presume this question has been asked or mulled over previously, but I am interested to know how fans of English football would view the implementation of a salary cap in the league.

As a fan of United States and a supporter for the advancement of Major League Soccer here, I want to ask what you think on this issue. As some may know, we have a salary cap in our game and I believe it helps add to the parity of the league. Realistically, every year, any one team has a chance to win the league. Since the institution of the FA league in 1992, there have been only 4 different champions. There seems to exist a large glass ceiling on top of the teams outside of the top 3 or 4 teams in the league.

Individual alliances aside, wouldn't it be great to know that a Wigan or Bolton can have a realistic chance of winning the league each time they enter. Wouldn't it be great not to worry during buyouts about which owner is the best choice based on monetary value.

As a fan of the NBA here in the United States, it is a great feeling after a mediocre season to know that my team has a realistic chance of being very good the next season and has a chance to contend for a title. It seems to me that most Premiership teams are just fighting to stay above the relegation zone and are not given a chance to compete against the great teams. I would sincerely like to know where the fans of the Premiership stand on this issue, looking from objective lenses. I am aware that the vast majority of football leagues in Europe and around the do not employ salary caps, so this question is more universal than I have implied. However, as one of the forerunners for football around the world, I believe the FA has the power to be a trendsetter on this issue.

[st mirren till i die]

If big clubs aren't able to pay big salaries then players will go to leagues where they can earn more. Footballers generally only get 10-15 years if they're lucky, most are out for as much money as they can get before they retire.

[Dida]

If big clubs aren't able to pay big salaries then players will go to leagues where they can earn more. Footballers generally only get 10-15 years if they're lucky, most are out for as much money as they can get before they retire.

I believe that is the biggest contention for the current method. However, as I probably did not allude to well enough in my first post, and a little idealistically I might add, I would like to see a salary cap in every league. I believe a salary cap immediately places more responsiblity on the coaches and players and makes them more important than who the owner is and how much money they have to spend. I guess a subquestion then is, given the players do not want to jump to another league for money, would you prefer this system? I know this is a hypothetical case and contextually is hard to imagine, but what I am getting at is would you be more interested in the league if this system were all over the world and players would not jump to other leagues simply because the other league had no salary cap?

[Bluebirds Boyo]

A bit of consistency in life can be a good thing.

[Prenn]

It's unworkable and as I can't be arse writing a long post why I would suggest typing 'salary cap' into the search menu.

[sinner78]

wow ,another salary cap thread

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=539812

[MNAFETSC]

A bit of consistency in life can be a good thing.

Whats that? The same 4 teams getting all the champions league money while the 5th place team is closer to the 10th place team than the 4th.

One thing that may work is have a soft cap like the NBA and MLB have. Set a limit on what teams can spend and if they go over it they have to pay a luxuary tax which I believe is split equally among the other teams.

[JackBastard]

Terrible idea. In L1 & L2 (not sure about the Championship?) you're only allowed to spend 60% of your income on players' wages, and they want to get that down to 50% soon. That would be much better effectively brining back the maximum wage.

[Alan_V]

All well and good, but the overriding fact is that if one country limits wages or transfer fees or any method of capping spending, the player exodus to those countries that don't do the same would be amazing. It would have to be a UEFA decision at least, if not a FIFA decision.

[RichardL]

All well and good, but the overriding fact is that if one country limits wages or transfer fees or any method of capping spending, the player exodus to those countries that don't do the same would be amazing. It would have to be a UEFA decision at least, if not a FIFA decision.it's not just the decision, it's the implementation. Even beyond different tax rates, whose to say each country will be equally diligent in checking that their clubs haven't broken the rules?



The game here had a salary cap until the early 1960s. It was scrapped through a combination of player lobbying, clubs realising the threat from overseas, and the knowledge that clubs were making all sorts of illegal payments anyway.

[leg_breaker]

I believe that is the biggest contention for the current method. However, as I probably did not allude to well enough in my first post, and a little idealistically I might add, I would like to see a salary cap in every league.

How does that work? Every country has different costs of living, different tax rates, different revenues etc.

[Bluebirds Boyo]

How does that work? Every country has different costs of living, different tax rates, different revenues etc.
And, most importantly, each country's currency has a different value which fluctuates greatly over time. It would be completely impossible to set a universal wage cap for that reason alone.

[Bluebirds Boyo]

Whats that? The same 4 teams getting all the champions league money while the 5th place team is closer to the 10th place team than the 4th.
Because I support a midtable Championship team and probably will for a long time to come, but were we ever to reach the heights of the Premiership, I'd like that to be based on hard work and an excellent squad than having every other team brought down to our level. What the feck is the point in that?!

[leg_breaker]

Except it has little to do with hard work, it's about having an army of glory-hunting armchair fans filling your coffers with merchandising and TV money.

[sinner78]

Because I support a midtable Championship team and probably will for a long time to come, but were we ever to reach the heights of the Premiership, I'd like that to be based on hard work and an excellent squad than having every other team brought down to our level. What the feck is the point in that?!

In american sports they are obsessed with having an entire league of mediocre teams and diluting the standard of every team.
They just cant believe that no one wants to copy their "genius" system.

[Colm]

Oh and have 20 mediocre teams then? :rolleyes: A salary cap would never work in English football because you'd need to a world salary cap and that'll never happen due to different currency rates. I really hate threads like this.Whats that? The same 4 teams getting all the champions league money while the 5th place team is closer to the 10th place team than the 4th.

One thing that may work is have a soft cap like the NBA and MLB have. Set a limit on what teams can spend and if they go over it they have to pay a luxuary tax which I believe is split equally among the other teams.

[MNAFETSC]

In american sports they are obsessed with having an entire league of mediocre teams and diluting the standard of every team.
They just cant believe that no one wants to copy their "genius" system.

Yah I cant believe no one wants to copy this genious method. I can understand NFL style salary cap not being started for previously mentioned reasons but I cant for the love understand why TV money, ticket sales, advirtisement money, and merchandise isnt split equally. The NFL is by far the most popular followed sport in America leaving the NBA and MLB in its dust tracks (two league that let their teams have a little more breathing room). My NFL team hasnt been a serious contender in 15 years the reason being bad management and coaching not because theirs been 4 teams in the NFL sucking in all the money come in from revenues for themselves. But I know nothing about the premier league so maybe you guys do find the race for 5th place and the chance at playing in the glorious UEFA Cup exciting.

[Bluebirds Boyo]

But I know nothing about the premier league so maybe you guys do find the race for 5th place and the chance at playing in the glorious UEFA Cup exciting.
I wouldn't turn finishing fifth down!

Clubs have their own targets; there's more to football than coming first, and believe it or not, it is possible to follow a football club for a life-time without them finishing top of a levelled-off pile without feeling empty inside.

Besides, since we don't have franchises here, wouldn't a salary cap mean teams like Colchester, Yeovil and Wigan eventually winning the Premiership? What an entirely unglamorous farce that would be!

[MNAFETSC]

I wouldn't turn finishing fifth down!

Clubs have their own targets; there's more to football than coming first, and believe it or not, it is possible to follow a football club for a life-time without them finishing top of a levelled-off pile without feeling empty inside.

Besides, since we don't have franchises here, wouldn't a salary cap mean teams like Colchester, Yeovil and Wigan eventually winning the Premiership? What an entirely unglamorous farce that would be!

It easy for you to say 5th place is an achievement but what about clubs that use to be able to challenge for CL spots and the title but now are unable to do to economic reasons and not sporting reasons? Thats why the NFL handicapped the economics factor so the title would be only decided due to sporting reasons. This is why a small market team likle Green Bay can still compete against a team from New York. In the end a hard salary cap is probably best for a closed league but I still can not understand how there is no revenue sharing within the league. Its funny when I first started following the premier league people use to always make fun of the SPL for being a two team league but you really dont hear those kind of jokes these days.

[RichardL]

Yah I cant believe no one wants to copy this genious method. I can understand NFL style salary cap not being started for previously mentioned reasons but I cant for the love understand why TV money, ticket sales, advirtisement money, and merchandise isnt split equally. The NFL is by far the most popular followed sport in America leaving the NBA and MLB in its dust tracks (two league that let their teams have a little more breathing room). My NFL team hasnt been a serious contender in 15 years the reason being bad management and coaching not because theirs been 4 teams in the NFL sucking in all the money come in from revenues for themselves. But I know nothing about the premier league so maybe you guys do find the race for 5th place and the chance at playing in the glorious UEFA Cup exciting.
TV money I'd agree with. It is daft to give the richest clubs an extra advantage.

Ticket sales no. The big difference is that we don't get city taxpayers to build nice stadiums for us. What would be the incentive for any club to expand/upgrade their stadium if they had to give the financial benefits away?

Personally I'd ban shirt advertising. It dates back to an era when even the top clubs were scratching around for every penny.

Mechandising, again I'd say no. I think every club should be able to benefit from their fan base, and merchandising is just one aspect of that. If it was shared then where would be the incentive to make good merchandise? I don't know how things are done over there, but I went to several AFL games in Australia recently and they have a lot of money-sharing, and I couldn't help but notice that not only was the merchandise exactly the same for every single team, it was pretty crap too.


You do appear to be making the mistake a lot make who haven't followed football in England long, and kind of assume that there's been an untouchable big 4 with nobody else having a chance for years on end. It's a pretty new thing. If it does continue in this way it will be unhealthy for the game here, but financially restricting every club so that Reading have a just as much chance of winning the title as Man Utd is not going to help the league.