JS on Sports Talk

Salty caps don’t work and still don’t really deal with the issue of clubs that I guess you could argue are economically alright but are still run appallingly…exhibit A being GTFC for the last 17 years.

I’m all for regulation and tighter control, perhaps even some stricter guidelines for clubs to adhere to but I’m not sure salary cap does that. All I can see is clubs find ways to exploit it, loop holes and the like.

Quoted from aldi_01

Salty caps don’t work and still don’t really deal with the issue of clubs that I guess you could argue are economically alright but are still run appallingly…exhibit A being GTFC for the last 17 years.

I’m all for regulation and tighter control, perhaps even some stricter guidelines for clubs to adhere to but I’m not sure salary cap does that. All I can see is clubs find ways to exploit it, loop holes and the like.

Remember a former Villa centre forward from the 1950’s being interviewed by Brian Moore and he was talking about the period when the maximum wage was still in place. He explained to get round this if they drew he would play the Chairman in a game of snooker, win and get £5 from a side bet, win the game and they would play 2 frames and he would get £10 off the Chairman. Lose and it was straight home so as you say always a way of getting around it.

Quoted from aldi_01

Salty caps don’t work and still don’t really deal with the issue of clubs that I guess you could argue are economically alright but are still run appallingly…exhibit A being GTFC for the last 17 years.

I’m all for regulation and tighter control, perhaps even some stricter guidelines for clubs to adhere to but I’m not sure salary cap does that. All I can see is clubs find ways to exploit it, loop holes and the like.

Loopholes will always be the downfall of attempts at salary caps. Flat caps (not the hats) where everyone in a given league is subject to a maximum spend on player wages are probably the most straightforward to implement, but are fundamentally flawed and inversely unfair. The recently proposed (and subsequently dropped) EFL cap would have forced the likes of Sunderland to conform to the same level of expenditure as Accrington, on 8x higher gates, which is ludicrous.

In theory, I’d like to see something that prevents clubs spending beyond their natural means. Partly to save clubs from themselves (or at least their owners), and partly so that clubs with little to no fan base and / or league history can’t ease their way through the divisions at the expense of historic clubs with a significant interest from their respective communities.

It galls me that the likes of Fleetwood, Forest Green and Salford (not forgetting Crawley) are where they are in the footballing pyramid. They might have done it based on footballing merit, but it’s merit that was bought with money not generated by the clubs themselves, and you’re not telling me they bring as much to the football league as the likes of Town, Wrexham, Notts County, Stockport et al would have.

The problem is, how do you define a club’s natural means? Gate receipts, obviously, - advertising, TV money, merchandise sales etc. Not only is ‘advertising’ revenue very difficult to police, you then have unique cases like Wrexham who have a dedicated TV deal worth millions, plus knock on effects like a shirt deal with TikTok and a high profile in globally popular video games like FIFA on the back of it. I’d argue that they absolutely should be allowed to spend that money as it’s self-generating and sustainable at least in the medium term, but trying to define the boundaries is going to be very difficult to do and even more difficult to police.

There’s merit in the basic idea of salary caps, but for the reasons above I doubt we’ll ever see one fairly and effectively introduced in English football. It will be interesting to see what happens in the National League next season. Hopefully we won’t be in it.

The whole idea of restricting spending to certain types of income (e.g. attendances) seems completely anti competitive and would only suit the current big boys. May as well just sort the league out by home attendance average.

I am certain if we were still in the Championship (lol!) and this was being discussed most would not agree with it.

Quoted from Poojah

Loopholes will always be the downfall of attempts at salary caps. Flat caps (not the hats) where everyone in a given league is subject to a maximum spend on player wages are probably the most straightforward to implement, but are fundamentally flawed and inversely unfair. The recently proposed (and subsequently dropped) EFL cap would have forced the likes of Sunderland to conform to the same level of expenditure as Accrington, on 8x higher gates, which is ludicrous.

In theory, I’d like to see something that prevents clubs spending beyond their natural means. Partly to save clubs from themselves (or at least their owners), and partly so that clubs with little to no fan base and / or league history can’t ease their way through the divisions at the expense of historic clubs with a significant interest from their respective communities.

It galls me that the likes of Fleetwood, Forest Green and Salford (not forgetting Crawley) are where they are in the footballing pyramid. They might have done it based on footballing merit, but it’s merit that was bought with money not generated by the clubs themselves, and you’re not telling me they bring as much to the football league as the likes of Town, Wrexham, Notts County, Stockport et al would have.

The problem is, how do you define a club’s natural means? Gate receipts, obviously, - advertising, TV money, merchandise sales etc. Not only is ‘advertising’ revenue very difficult to police, you then have unique cases like Wrexham who have a dedicated TV deal worth millions, plus knock on effects like a shirt deal with TikTok and a high profile in globally popular video games like FIFA on the back of it. I’d argue that they absolutely should be allowed to spend that money as it’s self-generating and sustainable at least in the medium term, but trying to define the boundaries is going to be very difficult to do and even more difficult to police.

There’s merit in the basic idea of salary caps, but for the reasons above I doubt we’ll ever see one fairly and effectively introduced in English football. It will be interesting to see what happens in the National League next season. Hopefully we won’t be in it.

The answer is you cannot define a clubs natural means and neither can you stop small clubs aspirations to get into the Football league.

We must compete in a very competitive world. I don't understand why such a successful businessman as JS would think it is remotely possible to stop the Wrexhams and other clubs looking for success.

JS thinks that success can be achieved in a number of different ways and I am sure we all agree with that, but you cannot stop other clubs trying different things including throwing money at it. If they go too far and get into difficulties then they will have to pay the price.