[Football] Have the players got off lightly?

[Iggle Piggle]

Gundogan put out a Tweet last night where he said this

“The UCL format right now works great and that is why it's the most popular club competition in the world - for us players and for the fans.”

I couldn't disagree more. The Group stage is in desperate need of overhaul. It has a number of dull games and the format is broke. The last 16 is predictable and the group stage will never work all the while it consists of 2 decent teams and 2 rank teams battling it out for 3rd place. There was barely a game in the last round of the group stages with something on it. Whilst the primary driver of the ESL was greed, UEFA haven't helped themselves with leaving the format as it is which is tired and in need of a revamp (and FIFA having the World Cup in Qatar meant everyone thought you could get away with anything). Long gone are the days Barcelona finishing bottom of their group. Who - other then city fans - wants to watch Man City bang 6 past the Champions of Romania?

He also said “More and more and more games, is no-one thinking about us players? This from a bloke in a 25 man squad with fitness analytics left, right and centre, Masseurs, fitness coaches and probably on 6 figures a week. Plenty of time to rest when you retire in your 30's and can spend your days snorting beak of a toned Blonde on your own Yacht. These guys can be unreal sometimes.

 

[Beanstalk]

Whilst I agree that footballers are paid too highly, this is an issue of the lack of regulation in the game, something that the dirty dozen were desperate to extend. Agents have seen an opportunity in the Premier League that doesn't exist elsewhere because of the unregulated boom in TV rights. Clubs openly earn an unsustainable amount from the TV deals and agents are employed to get their players as good a deal as possible from that. In a more regulated system, TV rights should have been doled out in fairer manner. The Premier League and FA might be barking that they want to protect the pyramid now, but have starved that same pyramid of access to a sustainable share of money pouring into British football.

A good comparison as to the enormity of this divide is looking at the average wage per week for two similar sized clubs. According to the (reliable) latest Global Sports Salary Survey we, with an average attendance of 30,426 paid an average salary of £34,717 per week to our first team squad in 2019. FC Tokyo, with an average attendance of 31,540, paid an average salary of £3,909 per week to their first team squad. We get the same crowds, yet our income is astronomically larger and therefore our wages are too. That's because of lack of regulation around incoming money and how that is spent.

I think the most striking thing about the GSSS is that Man United and Liverpool's average wage sits at about 2/3rds of what Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus (the main instigators outside of the PL) pay in leagues that have nowhere near the same amount of income. There is a level of financial mismanagement here that is terrifying. It is not up to the employee to turn around to one of these institutions and say, "are you sure you should be paying me 33% more than Liverpool to win my signature?" The clubs and owners of those clubs should run their businesses in a far less ridiculous way. As instigators in this, with no consultation with any stakeholders, it is these scoundrels who are at fault for desperately pushing this idea.

 

[GT49er]

All the talk this week has been about evil plotting owners selling the soul of the game but the main reason these clubs are in trouble and chasing money is the non stop astronomical rise of player fees, wages and agents costs.

The truth is with a sensible and controlled level of salary and fees football would be both sustainable and profitable but it has ran out of control.

Despite all of the financial issues reported we will still see a summer where clubs chase Haaland for what is estimated as £150m fee + £1m a week wages.

Very few players took pay cuts during the pandemic whilst lower paid members of club staff were laid off.

Whilst the owners are rightly getting the criticism they deserve when will the issue of wages and salary caps get addressed at a global level as this is what is driving the unsustainable football finances?

Money is leaking of the game due to excessive players' wages. I know that, you know that, we all know that - but unfortunately players - and more particularly their greedy agents - just don't get it. Nor does the PFA, sadly.
Having a maximum wage when it was twenty quid a week was clearly wrong, and campaigns against that were rightly supported. The same moral high ground wouldn't apply to, say, £60K a week - but unfortunately the PFA would be all over it and the courts would rule against it - restraint of trade or something?
Apparently get upwards of £100M a year for being in the PL. If the clubs got together and agreed a fixed 'pot' for their 25 man squads, that would be a much better system - and might have a chance of not being thrown out in the courts. £75M between 25 players? - £3M each, although obviously some would get more than others. It would enable clubs to pay their superstar striker the big money they want, although obviously the higher the wage fr the top earners, the less for the bench warmers and third goalkeepers. Workable - but would the clubs stick to it?

 

[KZNSeagull]

Some sort of salary cap has to come in and I quite like the idea of a fixed maximum pot per club for each league. The power of agents would decline and clubs would be forced to cut their cloth accordingly. It would also make it more competitive as theoretically any club in a particular league may be able to afford the top end players.

 

[Change at Barnham]

Hopefully this has also given some fans a bit more of an insight into the financial pressures on clubs to remain competitive.

There are plenty of us out here who have voiced opinions about the need to sign a £30 million player, on £80K a week because it's the 'last' piece of the jigsaw that we need.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained etc. etc. etc.

 

[Pavilionaire]

There are a couple of issues with a salary cap:

1. You have a problem if your salary cap is lower than another country. This is the problem in rugby union, where the English cap is well below the French one. Players then have to make the horrible choice of taking the French shilling, forfeiting their England place and - possibly - missing out on European glory, vs staying in England on half the money you could be earning in France.

2. A salary cap can - perversely - stifle player development. Saracens have an excellent youth academy and have consistently produced players who have gone on to play for England. In part, they were victims of their own success; in developing Mako and Billy Vunipola, Jamie George, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Nick Isiekwe, Owen Farrell, Ben Spencer, Ben Earl, Max Malins, Alex Goode they produced a quality of player that commands a top end salary. £7 million quid a year only goes so far for paying what you develop. That is not the only reason they breached the cap - they made bad decisions along the way and deserved to be punished - but a club should not be penalised for developing quality players.

On balance, I think a salary cap is necessary. The players, their agents and the PFA will hate it but the rest of football will breath a sigh of relief.

 

[amexer]

It is a lifetime habit. Come what may I will be watching Brighton . However money for transfers and wages in PL is immoral and a little of me feels some shame I support it. Few years ago TV money per club went up by £20m plus per season and nothing went to supporters. What an opportunity it was to reduce cost of tickets so would be affordable to all. We had income of £25m ish in championship. Now in normal times £140m ish.and still lose money which is a joke. I have no sympathy if you cant make profit on that income. PL clubs just a gravy train for players and senior staff like Barber and Ashby

 

[Seasider78]

Having a maximum wage when it was twenty quid a week was clearly wrong, and campaigns against that were rightly supported. The same moral high ground wouldn't apply to, say, £60K a week - but unfortunately the PFA would be all over it and the courts would rule against it - restraint of trade or something?

I wondered whether it could be enforced but there are examples in global sports where this exists so guessing must be a lawful practice.

I wonder if the reason this is not pushed for by the top clubs is because it would create more of a level playing field for signing players which would threaten their monopoly and domination at the top end of the game.

 

[FatSuperman]

It’s weird that we are blaming the players here. I suppose there is some argument that at some stage, the top earners should say ‘is this really right?’, Messi’s income for example is insane. But the crux of the problem is that the clubs have been in an arms race for talent. And they have used salary as the weapon in that war which has inevitably led to this situation. The ONLY way to stop is to mandate a maximum salary. Percentage of income is easily abused. So it needs to be an absolute number.

The top clubs will fight tooth and nail against this because it’s what gives them the edge. But actually it promotes laziness. Clubs can eschew proper player development by just paying through the nose for the best players. If club owners aren’t going to be responsible, then some rules will need to legislate for it. It’ll never happen of course!

 

[SAC]

There is never going to be a salary cap, I think they tried to introduce it in league 2 and it was ruled illegal. What you could and should have is a maximum % against total revenue. 75% would then leave the clubs to decide on how much to pay each player. This wont ever happen either, Championship clubs originally voted for the very sensible FFP limits but rich owners wanted to be able to spent much more so voted to increase it.

I get the reasons against any cap as it favours those clubs who had time to build up a squad over those with new money who try to compete with them.