Time for a salary cap?

bohsman

Agree with on principle, but it could never work

NekkidBibleMan wrote: »

At the end of the day, most footballers will be happy to play football for the typical professional salary - the only reason they're earning such obscene amounts is because the game is so awash with money.

FIFA should set a per-player salary cap, and set it low. Players may rediscover their love for the game and realize that it is a privilege to line out in front of millions of adoring fans, not a grueling task that requires ridiculous compensation.

It would also curtail players angling for moves to clubs offering higher wages, a la Flamini, Adebayour, Ronaldo and company.

If FIFA could reduce salaries & transfer fees, the money could be pumped into grassroots football and be put to use to offer the fan better value for money.

This thread has been mainly fantasy but thats just crazy, as mentioned the EU would never allow a wage cap, nor should they, and if the players arent getting it the likes of Abramovich will get it instead, theyre not just going to decide to to slash prices for the consumer. Football as anything else than a business at professional level died in 1993.

heyjude

Neil3030 wrote: »

Des,

Salary caps are most effective when calculated on the mean earnings of all clubs in the league, not individual caps for each specific club based on their earnings. As you say, this figure would be far too easily manipulated by introducing capital.

I have absolutely no problem with players earning whatever clubs are willing to pay them. I have a serious problem with billionaire playboys swanning in and subordinating management, development and tactics with their piles and piles of cash.

I think the salary cap, if calculated appropriately to each specific league, is a good idea as it both restricts and protects all types of players. Mercenaries can still get their high wages if they so wish, but they will have to join a club that has a lot of cap room, which means they probably won't be playing with a very strong team. On the other hand, players who are motivated by pride and the desire to be champions will have to forfeit a chunk of their paycheck in order to get onto a team with players capable of mounting title challenges (but let's be honest, they'll still make a damn good living in the process). And then on the...eh... other other hand, youth players will receive more developmental attention as their value to teams increase under economic restrictions, meaning the standard of the overall playing pool increases for future generations.

By the way, this system still enshrines the principles of a free market, as players are free to choose which path they take - money or success. What the cap eliminates is the scenario that we are very likely to be facing quite soon, where massive injections of wealth at a small number of clubs will result in a handful of preposterously talented teams, with the rest of the world struggling to make up the numbers. We may be close to that scenario now, but it could get much much worse.

The salary cap doesn’t take power from players, it takes (a certain degree of) power from monetary influence in team success and restores power back to managers and tactics, which, unlike cash, are core virtues of the sport. As I've said before, in order for the idea to work FIFA need to introduce it at all levels, in all leagues and in all countries – that will create a network of monopolies vital to the idea’s success.

The cap scenario you explain wouldn't work for several important reasons, but most crucially because even if the salary cap for each team is equal the teams certainly aren't. The poorer clubs would demand that the cap figure be something they could afford, so it could be as low as £20m compared to 6 times that that Chelsea currently spend. So successful teams couldn't reward their players with more pay no matter how much the club earns or the team wins. Teams would be forced to sell older more expensive players and field teams with 2-3 real stars and a handful of journeymen to fill out the gaps. The owners would make a fortune, imagine a situation where a team wins the FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League in the same season, playing 30+ home games and yet the players get the same as the bottom team that were relegated and didn't play in Europe. The owners of the big clubs would pocket millions in gate money and merchandising revenue and pay just a small fraction to the players.

TV audiences pay millions to see the big teams with the star players, the salary cap as you explain it would spread these star players across the whole league, so the champions league would lose its appeal too, as the top teams wouldn't be able to afford more than 2-3 top players.


The salary cap is a seemingly simple solution to a complex problem and we know from our politicians, just how effective simple solutions can be and how they can have disastrous consequences afterwards.

Neil3030 wrote: »

Yes it will be a more complicated system than in the US, but for christ’s sake we’re smarter than them and it’s time we started acting like it.

The NFL Salary Cap in American Football started in the 1994 season and it is based on a percentage of league revenue. I'm not sure we are smarter than them, their salary cap was intended to create parity between the (now) 32 teams in the league. Since it was introduced, 10 different teams have won the Superbowl and 8 other different teams have reached the Superbowl, so 18 different teams have finished in the top 2. The parity it helped create has seen supporter interest soar, tv revenue and attendances are at an all time high and as a result the salary cap has trebled since it was introduced. However, their success in creating competitive parity is also partly due to the college draft in which the team with the worst record each year, gets the first pick of the new young players coming out of American colleges and as virtually all NFL players come through the college football system, the means that the worst teams get the first choice of the cream of the young upcoming players. Soccer cannot replicate this system for distributing new players, so even with a salary cap, parity will be much harder to achieve.

Tristram

Nay

Yo NekkidBibleMan, check ur PM!

delija_sever029

Nay

I vote yes coz in the world of billioners football becomes nonsence,its all about money and who will offer more,what chance will have other smaller clubs if football world will hold 15-20 ultra rich clubs and compete who will buy player for more money,its ridiculous,just look at new owners of City and what are they planning....