It is being reported today that the Premier League bigwigs are to discuss the possiblity of introducing salary caps for players. I have not seen or read any further details, but my initial thoughts when I saw the headline were: 1. It'll never happen - European Law will not allow this to be introduced at this late stage 2. It's too late, far too late and this is something that should have been considered at the outset of the league. I love football and because of football, I love Southampton FC; both have been a huge part of my life. At 43, I may well be over half way through my life and I expect football to be an important part of the second half too, but I think it's going to implode. Something has to change to break the spiralling salaries and cost of running a football club. I am not convinced we are at the peak yet either, as I am sure there are more billionnaire Russians, Arabs, Americans, Brits, Indians or whoever will get the temptation to become famous for owning a little toy football club. It has to stop somewhere and I think it will end in tears in the next 20 years. I think it would be absolutely fabulous if all Premier League chairman had to sign an un-disclosed agreement to not pay over a certain level to a single player. I can't see it happening, but it would be great and possibly prevent this wonderful game from destroying itself. Something has to happen.
Call me a cynic, but I suspect that some rules will be introduced that have no affect on rich clubs, but mysteriously reduce the chances of smaller clubs to compete.
Something along the lines of: No player can be paid more than x% of the value of the owner's oil-wells.
I may be mis-informed/learned, but I thought that would then become restrictive in terms of earnings and therefore contravene employment law/precedent? I am not sure though. I stand to be corrected (I was wrong once in the 80's too, you know!)
Keeping our house in order would be good enough for me. If other countries didn't, I wonder how many British players would go abroad and play? If they did, would that be a bad thing? Would they improve as players? Would our league suffer, or would more home grown youngsters make it through and be playing first team football? Would the Premie League become a poorer standard?
I don't know if such a law exists, but even if it does, then you can easily circumvent it by allowing salaries which break the cap, but imposing sanctions such as fines or points deductions. You could probably expel teams from the league frankly, so it could be binding without breaking the law.
Well the obvious problem is that with Sky money set to somehow increase by miles, that it will probably just flow straight out the other side in wages/dastardly agents fees. So what do you do. Well a one line maximum wage won't work as players are not paid in straight salary - bonuses, clauses, installments and so on. And I have a feeling that anything that tries to address those bits will be swiftly circumnavigated by some clever folks involving banana republics. It would be great if there were 19 other Cortese's in the League (actually about 8 as a lot of other owners do a very good job). If the Premier League can make some attempt at UEFA's version of FFP I would be happy enough, even though I'm not sure if it would actually work.
I think that the only way that you are going to cap salaries and bring football back on to some sensible financial level is to shoot down the communications satellites that Sky Sports use ! So long as there is a market then somehow there will always be a supply. There is a market for the Premiership and other top European leagues and so the tv companies are prepared to pay colossal amounts of money to have the rights to screen their games. I just can't see any meaningful restrains being put on players salaries, creepy agents fees, and the rest of the circus. I would love to see football back to be a sensible professional sport again but can't see it happening whilst there is a demand for the product. Another thing which does not help rectify the situation is the level of corruption at all levels within UEFA and FIFA as these fish feed off the amount of money being poured into the sport and they will not encourage it to lessen, no matter what they say in public.
In my ideal world all football would be amateur with players playing for the love of the game, that would be brilliant. But it isn't like that and I don't care that much as football is good enough as it is. The only downside of the big wages for me is that some players are playing for the money and don't care enough when their team loses and don't show enough determination and love for the game. Fatietiss, if you love football you won't want to change it.
Sky has nothing to do with how big the wages are, yes they pump a hell of alot of money into the game. But do they make clubs pay the massive wages?, nope it's the clubs that choose to. Football as a whole needs sorting and as it is all about greed.
I'd love to see a salary cap and a transfer cap and a rule of intent. (i.e. Don't bother using sneaky accountants to bend the rules) Mind you I'd also like to see a law of intent applied to Starbucks, so they'd pay the tax they owe us and not try to intimate that every coffee they sold in this country needed to be processed by back end staff in Luxembourg or Monte Carlo. Clamping down on these tax-dodging scumbags would be far more effective than cutting public services and then blaming it on "austerity".
Imo Sky has everything to do with it. They are the main source of income to the top leagues and it is their money that pays the players wages. Of course the clubs pay the wages but in a supply & demand business the players know that their skills are in demand and hence go for the largest cut they can - all funded by Sky TV money. If the clubs dont pay up then they wont get the players that they want to be successful - hence Saints & Ramirez. They wouldnt have been able to attract him without the Sky finance available in the Premier League. Football as a whole does need sorting out and the greed is financed by Sky tv.
The back pass rule and substitutes are part of football, goal line technology isn't and if you love football the way it is you wouldn't want goal line technology. You can love something for it's changeability, everything changes, but if you want it to be something that it isn't you are not loving what it is. I hope I have explained myself.
I am not sure. You seemed to question me and my loving a game I might change??? Not sure why you did, but I pointed out that the back pass and the substitutes rules were relatively new changes to the game. No-one seems to mind that now, or do you not remember football without the back pass rule. I remember, the season it was brought in, I was playing FB for Bognor Regis and it was a nightmare .. the game is better now though because of that change.
I remember the first match after introduction of the backpass rule. The ball was put back to our opponents goalie and all the fans yelled 'pick it up'. He did and looked completely confused when the whistle went and all the fans wet themselves laughing. Can't remember if it was at Saints or Newport, though.
Anyone remember that awful year they limited the number of steps a goalie could take with the ball. Dreadful to see a goalie try and stop on a sixpence after catching the ball.
Why? I'm certain it would be a poorer standard. To me, it doesn't matter what nationality the players I'm watching are. Frankly, offer me 90 minutes of Gaston Ramirez or 90 minutes of Jason Roberts and I know which I'd rather watch. But take away the league's ability to match and beat the wages other leagues offer and we lose a lot of quality players, and yes, following that it makes sense that the Premier League would become a poorer standard. Global salary caps would be great, it keeps everything in order and stops other leagues being more attractive to world class players. Plus the idea that a salary cap fixes everything doesn't exactly hold - http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...-killed-by-salary-cap-says-noble-2124471.html http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...0PdFw8fIGE3yrB82w&sig2=cVYeUz-MeZs9IMewh-dkiA http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-salary-cap-crushes-the-hopes-of-sports-fans/ etc. As nice as it is to think of it as a "there we go, done" solution there are far more problems than it just making the English game far less attractive. Of course, if it gets to the stage where it's salary cap or complete financial implosion then obviously, there's little choice but to bring it in and accept a lower standard of league. It's better than nothing, obviously. I'd just like to think of it as last resort,
