The PFA are not happy. This could get messy if it's voted for. Can see it being deferred to allow proper consultation. Has to happen asap, surely, in the interest of sustainability.
https://www.thepfa.com/news/2020/8/6/pfa-response-to-proposed-efl-salary-cap-regulations
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Good luck with that, the Football League doesn't normally work that quickly. On recent experience the PFA will be lucky to sit down with the FL in March 2021.
Charlton will happily comply
"The current EFL proposals would see a £2.5million salary cap placed upon League One clubs.
In addition to player wages, that total must include player bonuses, signing-on fees, agent fees, National Insurance contributions and relocation costs."
Now i completely get why a salary cap is being proposed, but for me they're going about it in completely the wrong way. I think a salary cap should be based on a % of a clubs turnover, not as the same set figure for every club.
Why should bigger clubs like us, Ipswich, Portsmouth and especially Sunderland be restricted to spending the same as Accrington and Crewe? It's crazy that Sunderland who average 30k crowds would have to spend the same as clubs with 3k crowds.
The Championship salary cap proposal is 18m. That's a huge gap from 2.5m and will only serve to make the gulf between the championship and league one even greater. Basically we're heading towards a Premier League 2.
In Leagues One and Two, a ‘salary cost management protocol’ limits wage spending, to 60% of turnover in League One and 50% in League Two, but owners are allowed to put in unlimited extra money, which can all be spent on wages. This was what triggered Bury’s downfall, when the fortunes of the previous owner’s business declined, opening the door for the odious Steve Dale to turn up with his £1. I guess that this is what the current initiative is designed to tackle and there will probably be some sort of compromise in the end.
Ambitious owners putting excessive money into the squad is not a problem that we’ve had since the short lived reign of Mark Hulyer. There’s certainly no danger of the current shower falling foul of whatever’s introduced.
Wouldnt it be better to have wage caps across all four Leagues (starting from the top rathet than the bottom) to make it fairer
Won't this cause more problems in the game as Sunderland will probably make a profile, possibly enough for them to invest in a fancy accountant to get round it while Wimbledon and Accrington would probably make a loss of they spent the full amount?
The solution, in my opinion, is playing costs must be lower than income. No ifs, no buts. You submit a forecast in September, revise it in February, have until the 1st of July to submit a final report. Failer is automatic 12 points deduction, in that season. Found cheating instant relegation.
If you want to spend money on an academy, building stands, employing extra support and medical staff, buy ticketing systems etc that's your look out and you can do so.
Financial doping is the problem at the top. If you think it is a problem.
It's still crazy though.They should just look to make FFP work better, lower the wage spend % to turnover to a strict 40-50% or something.
Telling a club like Sunderland who have over 22k season ticket holders which must bring in around 6-7m (and thats before match day revenue and merchandise sales etc), that they can only spend 2.5m is just stupid.
I understand that bigger clubs feel they should be able to sign the better players, but maybe the players will prefer playing at the Stadium of Light than Spotland anyway, even if they are offered the same money.
At the moment it's hard to justify the wages players get (and the fees paid to agents) and a cap will make our clubs a bit more sustainable and hopefully make them less attractive to asset-strippers and charlatans.
Also, the clubs will not be penalised for making lots of money - in fact they will in theory have more available to reduce ticket prices and improve facilities for fans / invest in community projects / spend on the chairman's new yacht.
They must include benefits in kind for a start. If not, you could pay every expense a player incurs, such as mortgage, school fees, cars etc. As long as a club payed those direct it would be the player who pays the tax. Club does not have to pay NIC on it so win win.
Relocation. Club buys house and let’s the player live there. Player let’s out his house so after paying tax on benefit is quids in.
Do a Sheffield Wednesday. Create a sham company and pay him through that. As long as you don’t back date his start date to before the company existed you should be fine.
Have a third party pay him via sponsorship deals.
These are off the top of my head, I am sure that those paid to think of ways around it will have a field day.
Been voted through
i.e. Its not just on the Basic Salary which would have been easy to get around
It does seem like this has been rushed through, I hadn't really heard anything about it actually happening until seeing this thread this morning.
The rumoured 18m championship cap in comparison to the 2.5m league 1 cap is ridiculous.
You'll get loads of players who would rather sit on the bench in the championship for 10k p/w rather than drop to L1 for game time and 1.5k p/w.
I agree with the principle of it but the level gives no head room for the bigger sides. Seems like every club will be spending 2.5m.