Are you in favour of enforced salary caps?

[LoftusRoadLad]

A performance related salary imo would be better

[MattyRangers]

How does anyone justify rooneys 300k a week wages, the bloke is absolutely not in the same league as messi or Ronaldo

Agree ref comparison of ability, but if Man Utd are willing to pay him £300k a week, good on him, more fool them.

Personally am firmly against such a wage cap, it is a free market and, as obscene as the money in football is, so what if an owner is willing to splash £100m on a player and pay him £350k per week. It's entirely upto them.

Tbh the only chance any side has of breaking into the "elite" of football these days is by having a sugardaddy take them over and adopting such an approach.

Yes there are cases such as Pompey where it all goes t1ts up, but when somebody owns / runs a football club, they should be free to do so as they wish to without having their hands tied in terms of their expenditure.

[Tarbie]

Agree ref comparison of ability, but if Man Utd are willing to pay him £300k a week, good on him, more fool them.

Personally am firmly against such a wage cap, it is a free market and, as obscene as the money in football is, so what if an owner is willing to splash £100m on a player and pay him £350k per week. It's entirely upto them.

Tbh the only chance any side has of breaking into the "elite" of football these days is by having a sugardaddy take them over and adopting such an approach.

Yes there are cases such as Pompey where it all goes t1ts up, but when somebody owns / runs a football club, they should be free to do so as they wish to without having their hands tied in terms of their expenditure.

I agree with the sentiment Matty, I too am in favour of a free market, whether we are talking about football or business in general. What I would say though is there are many of examples of Chairmen spending irresponsibly and then leaving the club saddled with debt even after their departure. It happened with both Leeds & Portsmouth, in fact back in the day Chris Wright tried his best to do it to us and basically forced us into administration.

Now I'm not saying that over inflated players salaries are everything that's wrong with football but I do believe it is the root cause of a lot of major problems. Now I'm certainly not in favour of going back to the days where footballers earn a pittance and have to work a day job but I'm also not a fan of how much the players earn these days and the knock effect that has on football as a whole!

[Jogo]

Money is killing football. The supporter in the crowd can no longer associate with the players and vice versa. Only a matter of time before a massive financial crash destroys half our football clubs.

[Tarbie]

Money is killing football. The supporter in the crowd can no longer associate with the players and vice versa. Only a matter of time before a massive financial crash destroys half our football clubs.

Don't think you are too far wrong mate!

[Felt]

I'm in favour of them (if only to stop the league being so predictable), but it would never work in football unless you got a consistent cap which took differences in tax rates etc. in place across Europe.

[Kirill]

Money is killing football. The supporter in the crowd can no longer associate with the players and vice versa. Only a matter of time before a massive financial crash destroys half our football clubs.

I only hope QPR will be spared this ordeal.
Plenty more "worthy" candidates out there IMHO.

[nasser95]

It shouldn't be related to performance on the pitch for the club because then we will have the same issue of the best players only going to a few select clubs. It should be related to financial performance relative to previous year performance. Lets say a club made a profit of 8 mil, they should be in for an increase in their salary cap for that season. If a club makes a loss, they are in for a salary reduction for that season (But only for newly signed players). That way leagues open up and the most well structured clubs succeed the most.

[stationcafe]

No way.

Football is big business, a lot of people make a lot of money from it and it's only fair that the players get their slice of the cake. If they're getting less it just means the suits are making more.

[Olly]

Yes, it's called FFP.

[QPRDave]

No way.

Football is big business, a lot of people make a lot of money from it and it's only fair that the players get their slice of the cake. If they're getting less it just means the suits are making more.

Do think the players are getting too big a bit of the cake, and then not paying our tax on it

[stationcafe]

Do think the players are getting too big a bit of the cake, and then not paying our tax on it

What do you mean? They all pay their taxes as far as I'm aware..

I think it's fair these top players get big wages - football is one of the most ruthless meritocracies going. Only a fraction of people ever make and these clubs have no loyalty to them, plus clubs make a fortune from the image rights of the likes of Messi, Rooney, Ronaldo etc., and then there's the long term damage these guys are doing to their bodies. Look at Ledley King, he'll probably be walking with a cane by the time he's 50, can you really say he hasn't earned that cash?

It is Sky and BT who are the real villains here imo, their fees are outrageous and they've basically monopolised football in this country.

[qprozzie]

One of the problems with salary caps is that teams who develop a great team of youngsters get hammered for their development because as the players get better they get paid more then the club is at risk of breaking it's "cap" and then has to let those juniors leave for other clubs, therefore creating the "why develop any players" syndrome when we can just buy players from other clubs. This will cause a massive fall in home grown players and effect the national team.
Also, as this develops, the teams virtually rotate champions because any team winning for a season or two has the value of their players increased and higher wages demanded and then they either break the salary cap or the team gets broken up and has to start again thus allowing the previously under performing teams to become more competitive. Yes, you will have closer competitions but it will become a case of who's turn is it to win this year!
There is also the issue of values being different in various parts of the country. It's obviously more expensive to live in London than in other parts of the country so do you allow concessions for London clubs because of the expense to live there and develop stadia and training facilities? Getting paid a million dollars in London is not the same as getting paid a million dollars in Scunthorpe! or do you allow concessions the other way because it's harder to attract players to Scunthorpe?

[CincyHoop]

This is an interesting topic, as an American I have a different perspective. I hate salary caps. Hate them with a passion. As many have said, these are businesses, and often just hobbies for the ultra rich to own a team. How can you limit what they want to pay for talent? It is no different than an accounting or law firm? They just have a different business model. I am not from England, never been there, but I just don't understand why you feel the need to relate to these players. Not saying your thought process is wrong, or you shouldn't feel emotional about the players, but I just don't. I like the aspect of unequal playing field (Chelsea, City, Utd, ect.) Makes it so much sweeter when you can beat them. There are aspects of NBA, NFL with their salary caps that are obvious positives (parody, your team can always turn it around the next year with smart front office decisions). But it works because of the draft, you finish at the bottom, you get top pick, and can rebuild. There is no draft in soccer, its your scouting department and ability to harvest young talent.

You can get to the point of being successful without having a mega rich owner. Sure it is tougher, and will take longer, and you are much more susceptible to getting burnt and having to blow it up and start it over. But isn't that some of the fun? Atleast to me it is. Even with a salary cap, it still doesn't make things an equal playing field. Players will always want to play in the a nicer city, for you Englishmen, London. For us Americans, it is Miami, LA, NY, Chicago. And players will take less money to be in those glamourus cities, happens all the time here in the NBA. I think you can build through youth, and sell for profits, as long as you have an owner that cares, and is willing to reinvest the profits and not suck it all dry, you will in turn be able to afford better and better players, (ie. Southhampton). Just my humble opinion but i think salary caps kind of ruin the fun of building a team up from scratch and the success is so much sweeter when you build something. If it never rained, you wouldn't appreciate the sunny days kind of thing. But I have no problem with the mega clubs buying everything, their fan base and brand gives them the revenues to do so. It is what it is.

With the whole associating with the players thing, I guess maybe it is just a geographic thing, I grew up watching the Cincinnati Reds, and now live in the town, but I don't feel like I ever have to feel like I could be able to get a cup of coffee with them or they have to be normal people. They are nice to have in town, can do good for the community, but if they are traded or just because they have a lavish lifestyle full of mansions and nice cars, doesn't bother me one bit. Like I said before, thats just my opinion and I see the other side of it, but its just my 2 cents.

QPR could be one of those clubs. All it takes is winning. If you win, the people will come. Sure it will take awhile. But if you fill up LR enough, it will make it easier to build bigger and better facilities. Then the players will come. Which with the right players can cultivate even more winning. I'll never understand the people who say they don't want a bigger stadium, they like LR and keep things the way it is, well then just accept being a small market club who lays in the championship for years on end spinning your tires.


Kind of a rant covering more than just the salary cap issue. But i've seen people put posts on here regarding all that so I figured just writing one big message would cover all of my thoughts.

[LoftusRoadLad]

Good write up Cincy