Time for a salary cap?

Neil3030 · 02-09-2008 02:02PM #1

I was going to write a big long musing on this, but instead I think I'll bang up a poll and see how the debate goes...

So, in light of what we saw happen yesterday at Man City, and what this could mean for the future of football if other billionaire playboys follow suit, is it time to introduce a salary cap?

Your move..

bohsman · 02-09-2008 02:09PM

Agree with on principle, but it could never work

Impossible to police, probably against EU law, set it at what £500 a week so that conference clubs cant complain that theyre being outbid?

If you set a wage cap of 50k a week players will either move to SPain or get 50k along with an added 50k bonus if they wear socks or whatever.

And what does it mean for the future of football? Surely its a good thing that moneys being pumped into the game?

Mitch Connor · 02-09-2008 02:13PM

bohsman wrote: »

Impossible to police, probably against EU law, set it at what £500 a week so that conference clubs cant complain that theyre being outbid?

If you set a wage cap of 50k a week players will either move to SPain or get 50k along with an added 50k bonus if they wear socks or whatever.

And what does it mean for the future of football? Surely its a good thing that moneys being pumped into the game?

You could set it to a percentage of the clubs turn over. Obviously this will mean bigger clubs can pay more player better money, but some clubs have worked very hard to increase turnover so they should get the rewards of it.

bohsman · 02-09-2008 02:15PM

Agree with on principle, but it could never work

Tauren wrote: »

You could set it to a percentage of the clubs turn over. Obviously this will mean bigger clubs can pay more player better money, but some clubs have worked very hard to increase turnover so they should get the rewards of it.

Theres a 65% of turnover wage cap just introduced in Ireland, however if someone wanted to pump 10m into the club that would count as turnover.

Neil3030 · 02-09-2008 02:17PM

Nay

Impossible to police, probably against EU law, set it at what £500 a week so that conference clubs cant complain that theyre being outbid?

If you set a wage cap of 50k a week players will either move to SPain or get 50k along with an added 50k bonus if they wear socks or whatever.

And what does it mean for the future of football? Surely its a good thing that moneys being pumped into the game?

Caps aren't done individually like that. Each team is set an overall cap - in American Football for example it's $116m for 2008, calculated on team earnings for 2007 - and it's entirely up to the team admin how much they give each player. They can lump it all on a couple of Robinho's but that'd mean the rest of the team would be Danny Mills'. The idea is that bringing in one or two big star, high wage demanding players, will require sacrifices elsewhere in the team.

I think it would be possible to police, but only if it was implemented by FIFA, across all countries and leagues.

allybhoy · 02-09-2008 02:17PM

bohsman wrote: »

And what does it mean for the future of football? Surely its a good thing that moneys being pumped into the game?

No i dont think it is a good thing for the game. It will only make the top flight more elite and make the gulf between the EPL and the Championship even bigger.

bohsman · 02-09-2008 02:20PM

Agree with on principle, but it could never work

Definitely not policeable, just looking at whats already happening here, Sporting Fingal are signing players up and giving them a 2nd job aswell, Wexford Youths are fairly amateur but there are players getting paid small fortunes in travel expenses. Could see Ronaldo getting paid 50k a week to sweep the dressing room and another 50k towards petrol.

Neil3030 · 02-09-2008 02:23PM

Nay

bohsman wrote: »

Definitely not policeable, just looking at whats already happening here, Sporting Fingal are signing players up and giving them a 2nd job aswell, Wexford Youths are fairly amateur but there are players getting paid small fortunes in travel expenses. Could see Ronaldo getting paid 50k a week to sweep the dressing room and another 50k towards petrol.

This is hardly a fair reflection of the state of all leagues that employ a wage cap. NHL and NFL players in America scrape by quite nicely while their leagues remain competative.

bohsman · 02-09-2008 02:24PM

Agree with on principle, but it could never work

allybhoy wrote: »

No i dont think it is a good thing for the game. It will only make the top flight more elite and make the gulf between the EPL and the Championship even bigger.

And whats wrong with that? Money goes to money, and on the bright side as more good players come in it pushes good players that would have been in the premiership down to the championship making that league better too.

bohsman · 02-09-2008 02:26PM

Agree with on principle, but it could never work

Neil3030 wrote: »

This is hardly a fair reflection of the state of all leagues that employ a wage cap. NHL and NFL players in America scrape by quite nicely while their leagues remain competative.

Might help that thats the way things have always been done whereas in Europe bribes and backhanders are the way things have always been done.

~Rebel~ · 02-09-2008 02:26PM

Nay

bohsman wrote: »

And what does it mean for the future of football? Surely its a good thing that moneys being pumped into the game?

This is exactly why a wage cap would be a good thing. At the moment a ridiculous amount of clubs money goes on wages that noone could possibly spend in a lifetime anyway. If they had to pay less wages, the club has far more money for its daily runnings which leads to better marketing, better stadiums and cheaper gate prices.

amacachi · 02-09-2008 02:28PM

Neil3030 wrote: »

This is hardly a fair reflection of the state of all leagues that employ a wage cap. NHL and NFL players in America scrape by quite nicely while their leagues remain competative.

It's a completely different structure thought, no promotion/relegation, franchises that switch cities when they feel like it. Not really comparable.

bohsman · 02-09-2008 02:30PM

Agree with on principle, but it could never work

Signing a superstar is as good as marketing gets, the punter is always going to be the last one to benefit so lowering gate prices wouldnt happen, a wage cap would be an excuse for owners to make more profit. Seriously the EPL is so far gone that anyone that thinks theres too much money in the game would be better off following a lower league side or an EL team.

herbieflowers · 02-09-2008 02:30PM

footballers are greedy and agents are greedy. It'd be difficult, with player power etc.

Neil3030 · 02-09-2008 02:38PM

Nay

amacachi wrote: »

It's a completely different structure thought, no promotion/relegation, franchises that switch cities when they feel like it. Not really comparable.

I agree with you the systems are different, but that isn't to say a different style of cap wouldn't work in football.

footballers are greedy and agents are greedy. It'd be difficult, with player power etc.

Players could still demand high wages, and hold as much bargaining power as they want. But if money is all they're after, they'd have to play for the weaker teams in the league with more cap room. Prime example is Tom Brady taking a pay cut and sharing his endorsements with his team mates in order to keep the team strong with better players. He won 3 Superbowls.

Signing a superstar is as good as marketing gets, the punter is always going to be the last one to benefit so lowering gate prices wouldnt happen, a wage cap would be an excuse for owners to make more profit. Seriously the EPL is so far gone that anyone that thinks theres too much money in the game would be better off following a lower league side or an EL team.

IMO it's not how far it's gone, it's how far it could go.

Xavi6 · 02-09-2008 02:48PM

Agree with on principle, but it could never work

Hell no! Not now that we're minted!

Down with that sort of thing!

bohsman · 02-09-2008 02:50PM

Agree with on principle, but it could never work

1 argument I could go for and I believe they have in Germany is not allowing clubs go into debt.

PHB · 02-09-2008 03:45PM

Nay

I've always believed in a salary cap, not only players specifically, but on squads. Not only would this solve the basic problem, it would drastically reduce the top 4s ability to give higher contracts to top players from smaller clubs, since they'd be unable to fit them in.
Also it would encourage clubs to invest in youth more, since they are cheaper.

I also think there should be limits on transfers based on your income.
Also think there should be a ticket price limit, but thats a whole other thing

ibh · 02-09-2008 03:48PM

Nay

bohsman wrote: »

1 argument I could go for and I believe they have in Germany is not allowing clubs go into debt.

Pretty sure it's the case in France as well. It may actually be that you can't exceed a certain figure of debt.

Part of the reason France 'exports' so many decent players.

bohsman · 02-09-2008 03:52PM

Agree with on principle, but it could never work

If Platini called for this itd be more UEFA being anti English etc Can only imagine how G14 would react.

PHB · 02-09-2008 03:54PM

Nay

Platini would never call for this. Why? Because it would affect top Spanish and Italian clubs too

amacachi · 02-09-2008 03:58PM

True dat.

juvenal · 02-09-2008 04:21PM

IMO it would be a welcome move from a sporting point of view, but the reality is that it would be almost impossible to implement. For this to work it would take the support of players, clubs, federations, and the businesses and corporations that are heavily involved in the game.

Comparisons to US professional sports are not really valid, as the leagues over here are basically monopolies. The salary cap works in these situations as there is no international competition to the US sports. The players' unions negotiate collective bargaining agreements every few years to set the salary cap and other issues for the teams involved. If a top NFL quarterback wants to leave his team for more $$$, his choices are limited to the other 31 teams in the NFL, as he doesn't have the option of waltzing off to Spain or Italy to take up employment there. Likewise with the NBA, MLB and NHL, where these leagues are so financially ahead of other international leagues that it would be a massive stepdown in terms of money for a player to move internationally. It would be like the EPL existing in its current form, and all other national soccer leagues having the same financial value and playing calibre as Coca-Cola League 1. Every player would aspire to playing in the EPL and getting the big bucks, but in reality only a few ever will. Currently, the EPL, Serie A and La Liga are probably the top leagues as far as wages and calibre go, with the Bundesliga, Eredivisie, Ligue 1 and possibly the Portuguese Liga as the second tier. If the players were to go on strike over wages in England (as has happened in several US sports), you'd soon see the top players head elsewhere where they can get the money they're looking for.

Unfortunately pro soccer is developing into a corporate industry, where teams are owned by billionaires, stadiums are named after companies, and signings are dictated by business plans as much as sporting tactics. The biggest clubs are essentially the same as US sports franchises, except that the manager still has a say in transfers and no clubs are being moved to a more profitable market (yet). It's probably too late to try and implement a salary cap on soccer, as too many people and businesses have a vested interest in the game and are making money from it.

The key issue here is that in a lot of professional sports the players see themselves as bigger than the game; that without them the game wouldn't exist, whereas they are just custodians of the game that we all grew up watching and love. In ten years, it will be another batch of players that we're watching, and the current crop will be managing/fishing/philandering/punditing etc. No player is bigger than the game, and no player is indispensable, but the wages the top players are demanding would seem to contradict that.

Although when the players see businessmen and corporations making so much money from the sport, it's hard to blame them for milking it for all it's worth, as their shelf-life is probably no more than a decade. From that point-of-view, it's impossible to see the players supporting a salary cap that in reality is going to affect their income drastically, despite the obvious benefits to the game itself.

SectionF · 02-09-2008 04:34PM

Nay

juvenal wrote: »

Unfortunately pro soccer is developing into a corporate industry, where teams are owned by billionaires, stadiums are named after companies, and signings are dictated by business plans as much as sporting tactics. The biggest clubs are essentially the same as US sports franchises

Telling intro to the sports bulletin on Morning Ireland today, as cue for Utd/City spending splurges: 'And now for the business, sorry sports news'...

Corporate football is developing into something that is light years from the sport's origins. Clubs in lower leagues in England, and in domestic leagues in the shadow of the EPL, are struggling.

Ironic that European competition law is being cited as blocking efforts to reform the game, and bring back just that -- some competition.

Besides, has anyone noticed the creepy kinds of people who own these clubs now?

Juan Pablo · 02-09-2008 04:36PM

Agree with on principle, but it could never work

Xavi6 wrote: »

Hell no! Not now that we're minted!

Down with that sort of thing!

+1 billion

Mr.Nice Guy · 02-09-2008 04:42PM

Nay

I'd definitely favour a salary cap. The wages are getting out of hand.

LostinBlanch · 02-09-2008 06:25PM

Nay

I think a salary cap is the only way to go. I'm not sure how it'd be implemented though. So a little from Column A and a little from Column C for me.

mikemac · 02-09-2008 06:30PM

Agree with on principle, but it could never work

I've not read the other posts but the OP's idea will be shot down immediately by the EU.
You can't cap someone's salary at that's restrictive practice and unfair.

Maybe it'd be a good thing for game overall, I admire the American system and how the worst teams get to draft the best rookies. Realy seems to work well but it doesn't apply to European soccer at all

vorbis · 02-09-2008 06:45PM

Nay

Do people REALLY not understand how salary caps work??
They're implemented by TEAM not by individual. I can't see how that is against EU law. You're not limiting anyone's right to work. UEFA could introduce a Europe wide team cap in the morning. Where can players who want more money go? South America??

invincibleirish · 02-09-2008 06:52PM

Nay

The EU can change its laws & directives to suit the situation.What needs to be done is a positive plan put in place and support from all echelons, unfortunately FIFA & UEFA when not squabbling with one another or whoring their events to the highest bidder should consider these options as they are after all the custodians of the game.

A similar system for club football that is in operation in American sports will eventually come to pass, the money in the game is unsustainable long term and its going to take a few big name clubs to go down the ****ter before the powers that be wake themselves up from their corporate stupor.

_blank_ · 02-09-2008 06:56PM

Agree with on principle, but it could never work

There should be no salary cap.

As much as people deny it, not like or whatever, football, at the top end especially, is now a business. Not a sport any more, but purely a business.

The players are the assets. Assest are worth money. Fair play to the players who are commanding the top dollar, more power to them. What exactly are people's problems with lads earning 130, 140, 150 k a week? Why do you care? What's it to you?

Time for a salary cap?

Salary Cap? 57 votes

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