Salary cap proposed

[Rosco]

Just to head off the inevitable comment that someone will make about it being against EU law - there are salary caps in being in European sports already. The EU Commission has said nothing about them, nobody has taken a case. Right now it's as legal as it can be without being explicitly stated.

Anyway, I'm in favour. I think it will punish teams for making stupid decisions - just like we are now.

The Premier League is considering the introduction of rules to control escalating player wages before the huge influx of cash from the next television deals in 2013-16. Potential rules presented to the clubs by the chief executive, Richard Scudamore, at a meeting in London on Thursday include a salary cap or a form of Uefa's financial fair play rules.
Some clubs feel strongly that the new TV deal, with £3bn already secured from the UK rights, should not be swallowed up by a new wave of pay inflation. But any rule change requires 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs to agree and it is not clear whether sufficient clubs will be in favour of strengthening financial regulations.
Manchester United and Arsenal, both of whom made profits in 2010-11, are understood to favour rules similar to Uefa's, which require clubs to move towards breaking even financially, not making losses. On Thursday Arsène Wenger supported that view, the Arsenal manager saying: "You should just get the resources you generate, that will determine the real size of the club."
However, some clubs see that as a move by the two with the greatest income to outspend everyone else. Manchester City, whose path to becoming Premier League champions has been achieved by the club's Abu Dhabi owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, subsidising huge losses, are thought unlikely to support new regulations, even though they have consistently said they are aiming to break even. City argue that a level of investment by an owner to bankroll losses is necessary to lift a club to success on the field and commercially.
Other clubs, including Fulham, Everton, West Bromwich Albion, Newcastle and Tottenham Hotspur, are also understood to question whether clubs need new regulations, rather than being trusted to manage their own affairs.
Despite income rising every year, pay to players has risen steadily over the past decade. In 2001-02, clubs spent £1.1bn, 62% of their income, on players' wages. In 2010-11, the most recent year for which financial figures are available, income grew to £2.5bn but players' wages amounted to £1.8bn, 70% of the clubs' turnover. Despite massive commercial growth and the Premier League's growing popularity abroad, only eight of the 20 clubs made a profit in 2010-11.
West Ham United's chairman, David Gold, is vocally in favour of introducing rules to limit wages to help clubs make a profit, as is Dave Whelan, the Wigan Athletic owner. Peter Coates, the Stoke City owner, said all clubs would be helped by having to conform to agreed rules.
"I hope this view is widely shared: we cannot have all the new money going in inflated wages and payments to agents," Coates said. "There is no need to do that; we will have the same players, they won't get better because we pay them more. It should not be beyond us to find a formula which works for us all."
Ellis Short, the owner and chairman of Sunderland, who lost £8m last year having spent 77% of the club's income in wages, is understood to favour restricting salary increases to 10% in each of the new TV deal's three years.
The clubs have agreed to work on the proposals in two separate groups of 10, then for all 20 to meet to consider the issue in detail at the end of September. The Premier League did not want to comment in detail until further work has been done; a spokesman confirmed: "There is a process under way to examine potential further financial regulation."

 

[gkmacca]

 

[OLD_Lewy]

I'm in favour of it, although I do worry that it will see the best players start drifting towards russian leagues where they can get buckets more, which is arguably already happening anyway

 

[StevieM]

Salary caps are only fair if they are the same for every team in the league and realistic that every team can spend to the limit of the cap.

Therein lies the problem.

Would Chelsea accept the same wage spend as Reading? Course not.

 

[Rouge Penguin]

Scum and the Arse are jealous of Citeh and are trying to curb their spending, that the only reason they're pushing for it. Theyve got established income streams from sponsors, and want to stop them before they get a foothold in their space.

Anzi Makalakalaka-ka-ka-ka-ka and the frog midgets son working at newly rich PSG wouldnt get into the CL for years with this summers spending.

These rules are all going to die off, which is a shame as its really only meant to make the smaller shitter teams work better and not continously flirt with bancruptcy.

 

[Sunny]

I'm all in favour of it in principle but believe it would be hard to police and people would use any loophole they could find

 

[Rouge Penguin]

I'm all in favour of it in principle but believe it would be hard to police and people would use any loophole they could find

Worked well for Rangers.

 

[jon545660]

Just make FFP work.

 

[StevieM]

I'm in favour of it, although I do worry that it will see the best players start drifting towards russian leagues where they can get buckets more, which is arguably already happening anyway

See, I kind of like the idea of salary caps - but the proposal strikes more of maintaining status quo & allowing owners rather than football to leech money out of the game.

In reality I'd fucking love it if a salary cap was set at a level where each club could spend the same with tight regulations.

I'd love it more if the league had to shed some if these overpaid cunts and had to invest in developing youth properly.

English clubs would be shite in Europe for years but it would be better in the long run for everyone.

Let fat fuck grant shagger go overseas and come back overweight to preseason and still get paid £200k+ a week.

But it ain't gonna happen.

More's the pity.

 

[Rouge Penguin]

Like a cockroach, football will survive anything.

Even if the bubble implodes in the most spectacular way, it'll still be there. Even if the moneymen get bored and go off to invest midget bowling, players will just have to take a pay cut or a different job.

We're all still going to watch Sky, the Premier League will still be there, we're all going to still go to games. This is really all about men lining their own bank accounts and fuck all to do with the good of the game.

 

[Gerry_A_Trick]

Would they cap bonuses too and sign on fees?

 

[Holle]

Like a cockroach, football will survive anything.

Even if the bubble implodes in the most spectacular way, it'll still be there. Even if the moneymen get bored and go off to invest midget bowling, players will just have to take a pay cut or a different job.

We're all still going to watch Sky, the Premier League will still be there, we're all going to still go to games. This is really all about men lining their own bank accounts and fuck all to do with the good of the game.

And will 'Arry still give interviews out of his car window?

 

[rampage]

Big sign on fees will be given to players then.

 

[Rosco]

Big sign on fees will be given to players then.

It would still count as salary

 

[Rouge Penguin]

Can they register themselves as a company?

 

[hmmmmm1]

Would image rights be counted?

Now that PSG have been taken over by billionaire, I cant see Platini support this idea.

 

[SummerOnions]

Would image rights be counted?

Now that PSG have been taken over by billionaire, I cant see Platini support this idea.

Heh he came out a week or so back and said he didn't give a shit about PSG, i'd imagine he'd love the idea.

 

[Le Chacal]

As has been discussed for years at UEFA or former G14 level, 70%(of clubs turnover) should be the cap.
And its still quite high, some clubs with 70% dont break even. Still I think its a good compromise between top and weaker sides.
Im all in favour but as some said, I fear clubs will find loopholes and you can see that in the american sports.

I hear Platini wants to implement at European level what we have in France and Germany and their very strict regulations...

 

[RedStar]

This was needed about 1o years ago, better late than never. All teams should be forced to operate on the same budget, there is no sense in having one cap for Utd and another for Wigan, that would be even worse than the current system, all teams should have the same maximum spend if they want 1 superstar and 23 journeymen in their squad so be it. to my mind football either moves to this model or it becomes less and less competitive until ever league is just like the Scottish/Spanish leagues with no hope of any change

 

[Hansern]

Getting 14 clubs to agree will be difficult

 

[gkmacca]

Next week, John Henry will pledge his support to make democracy work better by making it compulsory to vote and obliging every citizen to study current affairs for at least five hours each day.

 

[doctor_mac]

If the savings were passed on to make ticket prices cheaper, I'd think it was a great idea.

 

[Rosco]

Would image rights be counted?

Now that PSG have been taken over by billionaire, I cant see Platini support this idea.

That to me is the elephant in the closet.

Ideally all payments to players should be recorded by the league and my preference is for a soft salary cap like they have in MLB. Teams can go over the threshold but they' pay a tax that gets redistributed between the smaller clubs.

 

[moron]

Everyman has the right to earn whatever the market is willing to pay for his services. Salary cap is a bad idea, and I I say that being someone who does not earn that much money at all. I know the sums demanded by certain players is quite large, but if a club is willing to pay him that much then its his right. I would also argue that if the player was not getting his worth due to an imposed cap then I gurantee the money would be pocketed by directors awarding themselves bigger salaries and not all of it would go on transfers or the development of the club.

 

[goodspam]

Salary caps (or called something different but performing a similar role) exist in multiple sports across all geographic regions. It seems to be a success in the main.
There are sports in Europe that have salary caps (rugby), so I don't think this is anything that contravenes EU law.
Also, regarding a Salary cap in a league that competes for players, with teams in another league that doesn't have a cap - this already occurs in the Australian Rugby League (NRL). Maybe someone who follows this league can comment on the effects that this has on players drain.

 

[RedStar]

Everyman has the right to earn whatever the market is willing to pay for his services. Salary cap is a bad idea, and I I say that being someone who does not earn that much money at all. I know the sums demanded by certain players is quite large, but if a club is willing to pay him that much then its his right. I would also argue that if the player was not getting his worth due to an imposed cap then I gurantee the money would be pocketed by directors awarding themselves bigger salaries and not all of it would go on transfers or the development of the club.

There is a mechanism around this, if you have 1 player per club who can be paid an unlimited amount then theoretically there is no maximum on any player as all they have to do is become the most important player at their respective club and then demand whatever the market rate is. Its then up to the club to decide if said player is worth it

 

[Richey]

An issue with this. If the cap was placed, either on the total wage bill or on individual players, at a rate that would mean that certain clubs or players were over the cap, the wages could not be reduced because that would breach the contracts. So what could be done if the big clubs just handed their high earners big contracts, with in-built increases and bonuses, the day before the cap came in? It would be perfectly legal to do so

 

[Modo]

Next on the agenda:

Draft.

 

[RedStar]

An issue with this. If the cap was placed, either on the total wage bill or on individual players, at a rate that would mean that certain clubs or players were over the cap, the wages could not be reduced because that would breach the contracts. So what could be done if the big clubs just handed their high earners big contracts, with in-built increases and bonuses, the day before the cap came in? It would be perfectly legal to do so

It would have to be phased in over a number of years so that no currently existing contracts would be breached im guessing, while any contracts signed in the period leading up to the enforcement of the cap would either have to comply with the rules or expire before the cap comes into effect. I would think 5 years would be required to do it, or you could just start it in say 3 years with an amnesty in place for any contract signed before the rule was agreed but those contracts could not be extended.

With the exception of maybe 3/4 clubs I cant imagine why this wouldnt be popular with the rest of the chairmen, it would dramatically reduce the bargaining power of players/agents. And most fans would be happy to think they could retain their best players a bit longer. Obviously the players will fight it but not all of them can go and play in Qatar

 

[StevieM]

Next on the agenda:

Draft.

Double glazing or one of those fluffy toys that look like a snake should suffice.