Does football need a salary cap for its greater good?

Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest paid footballer in the world. But many players don’t share the same fortune

Founded in 1863, Stoke City is a club steeped in tradition. Based in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, they are one of the oldest professional football clubs in the world and are one of the founding members of the Football League.

In 2008, Stoke City gained promotion to the top flight of English Football, a level they had not participated at for 23 years. Over the next 7 seasons, Stoke have firmly established themselves as a regular Premier League club.

Respectable mid table finishes and an odd cup run have brought a great deal of pride back to the grand old club. Unfortunately for them and their supporters though, this is as good as things will get.

Yes, they can hope for an occasional cup run and maybe even a shock trophy. Yes, they may grab a Europa League place if they’re lucky. But unless they’re bought over by a rich oil baron (unlikely for a club not based in one of England’s big cities) Stoke City will never get into the Champions League, they will never compete for the League and their best players will always look for moves away. With the prospect of floating around the Premier League mid-table for eternity looming, one has to wonder; what is the point of Stoke City?

Sky-high salaries

The main reason why Stoke and other clubs at their level are seemingly in a state of suspended animation is because they cannot afford to pay players the wages that the bigger clubs can.

The introduction of a salary cap could help even the field and give mid table teams a chance to compete with the top teams. It needs to be stated that any salary cap will have to be universal.

It is no good having one country implement a cap while others abstain. Across the board, changes to the salary structure of football clubs will be needed. In recent years, pundits have hailed the premier league as the most competitive, citing the number of teams that fight it out for the top spot. Imagine a league where on day one, everyone had a chance to go for the title! Imagine the excitement! It would turn every game into a can’t miss the occasion, not just the big ones.

In recent years, clubs like Portsmouth, QPR and most famously Leeds have all faced the horrific effects of excessive spending on wages. In today’s world, cash is king and football is a business. Many clubs, however, seem to find it difficult to conduct their business responsibly.

Balancing ambition with reasonable finances is very rare. While excessive wages may not be the sole reason for the demise of clubs, it certainly is one of the main co-conspirators. Salary caps could curb the spending and save clubs from themselves.

What could be done

Over the years, many methods of a salary cap have been suggested. Let’s have a look at some of them:

1. Fixed Amount – Much like the salary cap in American sports, a fixed amount will be set, above which clubs cannot spend money on players salary
2. Percentage of Revenue/Profits – Here, clubs will be able to spend based on what they make. Maximum wages will be a fraction of the revenue or profits the clubs make. This however, will again favour the bigger clubs as they will always commercially out-earn the smaller ones.
3. Expanding scale method – Clubs will be allowed to spend only a fixed amount on salary in the first year and increase this spending by a fixed amount every year or after a specific amount of time thereafter (e.g. Increase the cap by 5% after 5 years or 1% every year).

There remains, however, uncertainty with how a salary cap could apply to a newly promoted team. Will they be given an exemption for a year? If so, how will teams who are competing with them be compensated for this disadvantage?

Whether football needs a salary cap and if it does, how is it to be implemented may be unanswered questions, but there is no uncertainty over the fact that having more teams compete for the top prizes and preventing clubs from financial destruction will be better for everyone associated with the game.

It is an issue that warrants discussion by those entrusted with the responsibility of running the game and will hopefully lead to the saving of some clubs and the rise of others.