Salary cap confirmed

[zstep123]

this will make the academy that much more important to those teams who have them in the lower leagues. We seem to be well set up in the short terms with numerous U21s reasonably close to playing time and it may force us to keep a smaller 1st team squad that is heavily augmented by youngsters.

The 2.5M cap suggests if we have 20 senior players, they can average 2400/week including taxes and agents fees. Not all first teamers make that much but several make a lot more. U21s dont count against the number as I understand it. With the league average at 1500 or whatever it is, our existing earners above that will only count as the league average wage. So with the bigger earners already contracted (Taylor, Henry, Brannagan, likely Clare, etc) in reality, we probably have room to bring in another higher earner or two this season. Presumably one would be Dickie's replacement and it would've been convenient to sign them before the cap went into effect but whatevs. It also suggests young Prem loanees will be sought after since they wont count against the cap if young enough (like Holland and Woodburn last season).

Makes it that much important for the "bigger" clubs to get promoted in the next season or two because as their high earner contracts expire or are renewed, they will count more against the cap in future than they do now (wont count as the average league wage anymore).

 

[bazzer9461]

If ever a salary cap was needed it should be in the Premier Lge, Not Lge1 and 2.

I just think it’s ridiculous, and we move closer to a Premier Lge 2.

And if they do I wonder if they try and go for the option of the promoted L1 sides to be invited into the championship which was something the Premiership we’re looking at doing when it the premiership started

 

[m]

on a separate note, I do love that the EFL don't own the registration for https://efl.co.uk/ - love the page that comes up (is SFW)!

Brilliant!

 

[Scotchegg]

Just 11 months ago, the EFL was being critisised over the plight of Bury.

Now, the clubs seek to reduce the risk of this occuring again, and there is uproar and critisism of the EFL for the decision made by member clubs.

Success should be about performance on the pitch, not the wealth - and the ability to accumulate debt - of the owners.

The salaries of footballers have been insanely high for decades - haven't the events of the post few months demonstrated how vital those in lowly paid jobs are, whilst life can continue without many of those, like footballers, in extremely well paid occupations?

It's unlikely that clubs in the Premier League and Championship will now increase their squad sizes , as some here have suggested.

Clubs around Europe will also be cutting costs, so I don't expect to see a significant increase of players following Roofe, etc. to the continent.

2020 has changed global finances. Don't expect much to remain as it was in 2019.

Let's hope that clubs like ours begin to reduce debt levels, and reduce the risk of insolvency.

Clubs will have to look at investing more into homegrown players and scouting markets that enable us to bring young players in fairly cheap contracts, before selling them on at a profit.

We are potentially ahead of the game of many clubs, and it will eventually allow the millions we make on Dickie and others to go back into securing the club for the future.

It also means that when we get promoted to the Championship that we'll have a better chance of staying there. An £18m budget sounds crazy, but I'd rather be a side that has the capacity to grow our budget by several million rather than being one that will need to make huge cuts.

And, as for the fears of PL B teams, or PL2, the easiest way for this to be introduced is when several clubs go bust. Only a couple of months ago, the whispers coming through the game was that up to 20 lower league clubs could go under this year. An entire league could be lost, with few conference sides equipt to step up immediately. So it gives a free run to either dropping to 3 professional leagues, or filling the gaps with b teams.

It might not feel like it right now, but this could help protect lower league football whilst also making us a club bigger and better equipped to profit from these changes.

 

[chuckbert]

on a separate note, I do love that the EFL don't own the registration for https://efl.co.uk/ - love the page that comes up (is SFW)!

That is truly epic.

 

[QR]

Is this a restriction of employment rights or anything? Could it be challenged in the European Cou... Oh no,wait. ?

 

[chuckbert]

So whilst I think that it's madness that the salary cap is being brought in piecemeal (and still may not be brought in for the Championship - we'll see), and I think that the numbers are too low and basically just punitive for clubs like Sunderland......

.....at the same time, I don't actually think that it's necessarily going to be a terrible thing for OUFC. For multiple reasons:

1) We believe that we currently have a wage bill which is somewhere around the upper-middle of the division. It's a lot smaller than the likes of Sunderland, a lot bigger than the likes of Accrington but in general we don't have a big competitive advantage over the 'average' team in League One. Our competitiveness in this division is likely to change little

2) If KR does the business and we get promoted, then it's been pointed out that we will be at roughly a 7x disadvantage compared to Championship teams under the wage cap. Obviously, we'll have to recruit quickly to compete. But actually, crazily that's less of a disadvantage than we're at now, when the average Championship team is spending 34m on wages. A Championship wage cap (assuming it happens) would actually increase our competitiveness in that division.

3) A lot has been made of the fact that relegated clubs coming down from the Championship are going to be at a big advantage, but are they really? They may be able to spend more money than the League One clubs, but that money will be being spent on overpaid players that got them relegated in the first place. For new recruitment, they'll be playing by the same rules as everyone else.

4) The wage cap is going to depress player wages, and so we may stop losing multiple millions every season.


As I say, I'm not saying that I agree with how this cap is being implemented, and I don't think it's broadly fair. But I don't think it's the same horrible disaster for us that others seem to (but it is a horrible disaster for a club like Sunderland, for example).

Thanks for that nice analysis.

The problem for fans is that we all know the system is inflated and unsustainable, but also know that we don't want to be the only ones that are disadvantaged by any reforms.

It really does look to me like the changes around OUFC in the last few years have placed or are placing us in a good state for this potential "new normal". The focus on creating talent has been supported again for a while now. Although I'd like to see some reward for good player resale and attracting new punters, it would be good to see the end of over-stretching the mortgage on marquee signings (the most illustrative example being Mackems/Grigg).

 

[Scotchegg]

Is this a restriction of employment rights or anything? Could it be challenged in the European Cou... Oh no,wait. ?

It's nice to see you making a football comment for once.....oh no, wait!!!

However there are no employment restrictions. All existing contracts would need to be honoured and employers have the right to offer reduced terms at the end of the contract, as long as they also allow the employee to leave if terms are declined. Some of the player power we've seen may return to the clubs, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

[werthersoriginal]

There could be an advantage to clubs who are able to discover players who are actually as good as those earning many times as much, as we’ve been doing. Of course those players will soon be off to benefit from those vastly higher wages available higher up, but that’s the case now anyway.

 

[QR]

It's nice to see you making a football comment for once.....oh no, wait!!!

However there are no employment restrictions. All existing contracts would need to be honoured and employers have the right to offer reduced terms at the end of the contract, as long as they also allow the employee to leave if terms are declined. Some of the player power we've seen may return to the clubs, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Yeah funny.

But if a club wants to pay a player say £3k a week and the player is happy with this why should a third party be able to prevent it. Isn't it an unjust restriction of employment.

 

[OUFCGav]

Yeah funny.

But if a club wants to pay a player say £3k a week and the player is happy with this why should a third party be able to prevent it. Isn't it an unjust restriction of employment.

But they are not changing the ability of the individual player to get £3k. It is the total.

 

[ttg17]

Just 11 months ago, the EFL was being critisised over the plight of Bury.

Now, the clubs seek to reduce the risk of this occuring again, and there is uproar and critisism of the EFL for the decision made by member clubs.

Success should be about performance on the pitch, not the wealth - and the ability to accumulate debt - of the owners.

The salaries of footballers have been insanely high for decades - haven't the events of the post few months demonstrated how vital those in lowly paid jobs are, whilst life can continue without many of those, like footballers, in extremely well paid occupations?

It's unlikely that clubs in the Premier League and Championship will now increase their squad sizes , as some here have suggested.

Clubs around Europe will also be cutting costs, so I don't expect to see a significant increase of players following Roofe, etc. to the continent.

2020 has changed global finances. Don't expect much to remain as it was in 2019.

Let's hope that clubs like ours begin to reduce debt levels, and reduce the risk of insolvency.

Couple of issues with this.

First, the Bury argument is a bit of a straw man / false dichotomy. It’s possible to be critical of how the EFL enforced its previous rules and also be critical of introducing a flat wage cap. While the enforcement is difficult, as has been shown by the numerous failures over the past few years, the sentiment behind FFP made coherent sense. Here it doesn’t, and will still probably be just as unenforceable.

Second, “Success should be about performance on the pitch, not the wealth - and the ability to accumulate debt - of the owners.” This is true, but again it’s not a binary issue. The whole point of success on the pitch is that it can be a vehicle to grow your club, through increased attendances which in turn lead to higher advertising rates, more sales of club merchandise, etc., all of which contribute to higher income - which can be translated into investment in a playing squad and so more success on the pitch. This salary cap robs any team of the possibility to grow organically. The previous regime was designed to prevent what you said from being true, too. Again, I don’t see what this cap accomplishes that that regime, properly enforced, didn’t.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

It was never about safeguarding anybody. It was about roping off the Championship as much as possible before it becomes the PL2.

Give it 2/3 seasons until all the pre-cap contracts expire and the clubs who haven’t been in the Championship by that point are rigidly stuck to these budgets, and all you’ll see is the same handful of teams bouncing up and down. Get promoted for even one season and you can immediately spend seven times what you can in L1, and take that wage bill down with you the following season. It’s an astronomical advantage.

They’ve just been saying precisely this on TalkSport.

Closing comment from Darren Gough: “I was talking to Karl Robinson about this recently and all he said to me was, ‘Premier League 2. Watch this space.’”

 

[Marked Ox]

League One & Two salary caps 'unlawful'

Plans for a salary cap in League One and League Two are "unlawful and unenforceable" says the Professional Footballers Association.

www.bbc.co.uk

PFA already challenging it.

 

[RgYellows]

This salary cap robs any team of the possibility to grow organically. The previous regime was designed to prevent what you said from being true, too. Again, I don’t see what this cap accomplishes that that regime, properly enforced, didn’t.

Disagreed. You can grow through promotion, and promotion is easier for a club that is better managed than its peers. You can also grow through investment in coaching and in youth, and investment in the community that increases their engagement with your club and puts you on a better footing once you get into the higher division. What it stops you doing is spending vastly more on salaries than clubs at your same playing level.

I do not see that the old regime would have been properly enforced and I am not convinced it was realistically capable of being properly enforced.

Fundamentally, it is odd to me that when listing advantages we say "Our club might be run sustainably and we might stop worrying about whether it exists or not in five years" and this is not in flashing yellow and blue text, in bold, in capital letters, at the top of that list.

 

[RgYellows]

They’ve just been saying precisely this on TalkSport.

Closing comment from Darren Gough: “I was talking to Karl Robinson about this recently and all he said to me was, ‘Premier League 2. Watch this space.’”

Your argument relies on the relegated teams having spent their money wisely, and on players who won't want to leave after the relegation. For new players, they get to spend the same as us.

If they spent their money wisely, why did they get relegated?

If all their good players leave, aren't they just stuck with the chancers draining wages they can't earn anywhere else?

Proof will be in the numbers I guess.

 

[tonyw]

League One & Two salary caps 'unlawful'

Plans for a salary cap in League One and League Two are "unlawful and unenforceable" says the Professional Footballers Association.

www.bbc.co.uk

PFA already challenging it.

Unsurprising. The players are going to be the ones who lose out from this most of all.

Three of the four major sports leagues in the US have a salary cap (and the 4th - MLB - has a pseudo-cap), but all of these are introduced through a collective bargaining process between the respective leagues and the player unions.

The EFL seem to have brought this in unilaterally without even consulting the PFA, let alone negotiating with them. Gonna get messy.

 

[RgYellows]

Another thought - if the same three teams go up every two years, what's to stop the other 21 clubs voting to undo this?

 

[Marked Ox]

Unsurprising. The players are going to be the ones who lose out from this most of all.

Three of the four major sports leagues in the US have a salary cap (and the 4th - MLB - has a pseudo-cap), but all of these are introduced through a collective bargaining process between the respective leagues and the player unions.

The EFL seem to have brought this in unilaterally without even consulting the PFA, let alone negotiating with them. Gonna get messy.

And the PFA are saying because Arbitration hasn't happened then the regulations can't be active. As you say gonna get messy.

 

[Northstandboy]

And the PFA are saying because Arbitration hasn't happened then the regulations can't be active. As you say gonna get messy.

A delay to the start of the season?