Should a salary cap be introduced to the premier league

I think it would stop the same teams winning the league every year.Since the league was established in 1992 only Manchester united,Chelsea,Blackburn Rovers and Arsenal have
Won the league and they were hugely financially backed in the season(s) that they won the league.I think if a salary cap was introduced games would be closer and more exciting if there was a salary cap and there would be no more foreign sugar daddys trying to buy the league and then getting bored and leaving the club in fianancial trouble.

The problem is if a salary cap was introduced it would probably be put ridiculously high meaning those clubs currently at the top wouldn't have to adapt their wage expenses at all, while those further down the league would have lots of cap space but would probably still struggle to attract certain players.

Some other potential issues:
1- If introduced into the Premier League it really has to be implemented throughout the whole football league system.
2- Unless it was introduced by FIFA or UEFA then I would expect that while "foreign suggar daddys" wouldn't be in buying Premier League clubs they would find their way into other countries and most of the best players would be running to the exit door.

I know it probably sounds like I'm massively against the idea but I'm not I think it could be good for increasing competition, but unless implemented all over the world the Premier League would lose many of it's "stars".

It's a nice idea in theory, but I don't think it would ever work. Like Derbyblue said, unless implemented by Fifa the players will just move to places where they will pay them ridiculous amounts.

It'd be very hard to introduce a salary cap now when they're already on the high wages, if one had been introduced years ago, that's fine, but what'd you essentially be doing is breaking all those contract agreements and lowering a lot of people's wages.

I don't think it would increase competition as Derbyblue said, all the best clubs would be at the limit of the wage cap where as the smaller clubs would just have a gap.

The more you pay the better they play

pauline1981 wrote:The more you pay the better they play

Beautifully poetic and of course completely correct as Fernando Torres has proved.

Yes, definitely.

Like others have said though, its an idea that won't get off the ground now. Players aren't going to take too kindly to having their earnings slashed from £200k to only £100k per week. The poor little mites. And unless its introduced globally, players will just play in the leagues they can earn more in.

dancingweeman wrote:Yes, definitely.

Like others have said though, its an idea that won't get off the ground now. Players aren't going to take too kindly to having their earnings slashed from £200k to only £100k per week. The poor little mites. And unless its introduced globally, players will just play in the leagues they can earn more in.

I know,to only be on 100 k per week is enbarrissing

I think it could be introduced - it would as people have said need support globally, and to make it legal (and to ensure it doesn't break contracts) then it would need to be given at least 5 years from approval to implementation, and then a gradual decrease - from say a team being able to spend (I don't know) £10m a month on wages (does that sound reasonable) to £9m the next season and so on.

That way no one is saying a player can't earn xxx, but what it does mean is that that then impacts on the rest of the squad and levels itself out.
It should be encouraged in these plans that season tickets become cheaper (and they should because wages and transfers are the biggest overhead), and the businesses become more manageable.

I'm not sure a salary cap would be the answer. The problem with football is that they get paid a lot of money regardless of whether they play well or not.
I'd more more in favour of performance related pay rather than having them just turn up and take the money, that would ensure that at least players put in the effort, just like most other sportsmen have to do in order to get paid.

Basic salary, plus win bonus.

super_realist wrote:I'm not sure a salary cap would be the answer. The problem with football is that they get paid a lot of money regardless of whether they play well or not.
I'd more more in favour of performance related pay rather than having them just turn up and take the money, that would ensure that at least players put in the effort, just like most other sportsmen have to do in order to get paid.

Basic salary, plus win bonus.

Is that you Alan Hansen?

Just seems silly for sports like Football, Rugby and Cricket to pay people the same amount whether they lose or win. Where is the incentive to play well?

If you play Tennis or Golf your salary is related to how far you get in the tournament or how high up the leader board you finish.
You'd remove the excuse of apathy straight away and relegation would truly be the preserve of those who were the worst team rather than those who were the most apathetic and happy to just take the money (West Ham)

If a salary cap is introduced, it must be an international salary cap. Players would just skip the Premiership and head to Spain, Italy and German

I agree to a point, but golf and tennis are both individual sports.

How would the performance related pay work? Would it be win/goal/clean sheet dependant? If so, if a team has a stand out player in terms of ability, but are struggling at the bottom of the table, he will likely get paid a lot less and look to leave. I could just see the better teams getting better and the weaker teams getting weaker.

The alternative is the players get marked out of 10 on their performance and paid accordingly, but this is far too subjective.

Sorry, but i cant see it being workable in team sports.

So keep on paying them hundreds of thousands of pounds a week regardless of how much effort they can be bothered to put in?
Successful and well paid, but not exactly what I'd call true sportsmen if there is no incentive to perform.
Don't see a problem with a subjective rating, the manager picks them so he should determine how well they have played.

The problems arise when players think they're being consistently scored lower than their team-mates, or when one manager scores player X at 6 out 10 and another manager announces to the press that he would have scored him 8 out 10.

Perhaps a scheme based on opta stats - passes completed, tackles made etc could be used. For midfielders, complete 80-90% of passes for a certain score, 90%+ for a better score. The problem being "clever players" (if there is such a thing) would play little passes amongst themselves to keep their percentages up.

Maybe a good solution would be to cap all salaries at a certain amount, say £50k a week, and have heavily incentive based contracts, £50k per goal/clean sheet.

Super_Realist

But if the manager determins how well they get paid because he determines how well they played - if that manager's club is struggling with money and he wants another player but can't afford him surely he can then just say that all the players have been playing rubbish - give them pay which is at the bottom end of the scale and use the money saved to pay a new players wages - regardless of how well the team have been playing.

Also what happens with discrimination - if a manager doesn't like a player then no matter how well he plays he ain't going to get paid much. Not much of a motivation.

dancingweeman - that would be good but again it is subjective - such as rating strikers for the goals they score would mean that any striker that is tasked with holding the ball up and setting up goals would automatically be paid lower, have less incentive than other players - but may be one of the best performing and more important players in the team. Look at England everybody thinks Rooney is the most important member of the team yet Crouch scores more goals - should Crouch be paid more than Rooney?

Smirnoffpriest - Good point.

Maybe this is why the pay structure is as it is. Just too difficult to find an alternative that is fair to everyone!

Agree with who said it should be an international salary cap. It's got to the point that certain players can only really move to one or two other clubs because their salary is so high. If they make it £100, 000 a week and after three years down to £80, 000. Hopefully it would balance out the international stars a bit more, stopping guys going to relegation threatened teams in the better leagues and go to more historically prestigious clubs like Ajax, Celtic, Benfica etc..

There are certainly ways round it. I don't think it can go on forever where wages continue to spiral. Eventually football will eat itself or implode.

A salary cap really isn't workable for a number of reasons.

Smirnoffpriest wrote:Super_Realist

But if the manager determins how well they get paid because he determines how well they played - if that manager's club is struggling with money and he wants another player but can't afford him surely he can then just say that all the players have been playing rubbish - give them pay which is at the bottom end of the scale and use the money saved to pay a new players wages - regardless of how well the team have been playing.

Also what happens with discrimination - if a manager doesn't like a player then no matter how well he plays he ain't going to get paid much. Not much of a motivation.

On champ man I used to sign up players I didn't like on long term contract and then fine them two weeks wages consistently, you just reminded of that.

super_realist wrote:I'm not sure a salary cap would be the answer. The problem with football is that they get paid a lot of money regardless of whether they play well or not.
I'd more more in favour of performance related pay rather than having them just turn up and take the money, that would ensure that at least players put in the effort, just like most other sportsmen have to do in order to get paid.

Basic salary, plus win bonus.

A lot of players do have incentives built into their contract which can be in a number of ways:
-Money for a Goal/Clean sheet
-A wage increase after a certain number of appearances
-Getting a new contract if you play a certain number of games
-Wage decrease for getting relegated

Also some teams do give their players a bonus for how far they get in competitions.

I know its not premier league but i feel a salary cap should be introduced for the championship, would help prevent teams trying to buy their way to the premier league and then using that money to make up for spending as much to get there.

The example this season would be Leicester City, they have spent £10m+ this year and has near enough ensured that they should be top 3 this season, where most teams in the division bar relegated teams cannot compete with this. They signed Matt Mills for over £5m and have offered £5m for Nicky Maynard as well (roughly £5m at any rate)