Post by Macmoish on May 6, 2011 6:22:14 GMT
Telegraph
By Joe Hare 06 May 2011
Premier League clubs discuss salary cap to curb English football's debt, reveals Dave WhelanPremier League clubs have held talks about adopting a self-imposed salary cap in an attempt to reduce English football’s debt crisis, Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has revealed.
Dave Whelan reveals Premier League clubs have discussed bringing in salary cap to curb English football's debt
Whelan has for several years advocated the introduction of a cap on players’ wages, which he believes are the root cause of the £3.3 billion total debt hanging over English clubs. But his proposals have always been rejected by the Premier League, which is opposed to a salary cap.
Now, in an interview for a BBC documentary presented by Apprentice star and former Tottenham owner Lord Sugar, Whelan claims he and some of the Premier League’s other ‘smaller’ clubs have opened discussions about reaching an informal agreement among themselves which would mean each club being limited to paying only two of their players more than £20,000 a week.
Whelan says: “Bolton, Blackburn, Wigan, Wolves all got together. The first thing you talk about is wages. We thought between us we should impose a salary cap. We said that we clubs within the smaller section of the Premier League, we shouldn’t pay any more than two players above £20,000 a week. It sounded to me very sensible.
"Throughout all four leagues we have got to impose a salary scheme where each league or each club pay so much in wages.”
The documentary, Lord Sugar Tackles Football, will be screened on BBC Two on May 8. In it, he proposes a five-point plan to free English football from its mountain of debt.
*
Like Whelan, he argues players’ wages must be reduced at all levels or more clubs will follow Portsmouth, who last year became the first Premier League club to go into administration.
Whelan adds: “The big problem is wages paid; we’re paying too much, every single club. If we could control wages, I think the Premier League would go from strength to strength.”
But Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore uses the documentary to voice his opposition to a salary cap being imposed across all 20 clubs, arguing that it would entrench the superior financial status of the bigger clubs.
“There are only two ways of doing it,” Scudamore says. “You either cap at a fixed rate, and it’s very hard to know what the fixed amount should be when you have some clubs turning over £40 million and some £300 million.
"The other way of doing it is by a percentage of turnover. Our 20 clubs cannot agree a basis which would be fair. If it was two-thirds of turnover, that would lock in the advantage to the big clubs.”
Yet even if Whelan cannot persuade the League to consider a formal wage cap, there is nothing to stop Wigan and other clubs reaching a ‘gentleman’s agreement’.
The danger of spiralling wages is laid bare in the BBC documentary. Sugar interviews West Ham co-owner David Sullivan, who reveals the club’s Icelandic previous owners were paying similar wages to Europe’s elite clubs.
“They had an unsustainable business model where wages were 90 per cent of turnover,” Sullivan says. “They had players on £60,000 £70,000 and £80,000 a week.”
By contrast, Whelan tells Sugar he earned £20 a week playing for Blackburn in the 1950s, and Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp recounts taking a second job in a supermarket to supplement his income as a player.
Uefa president Michel Platini, who will next season introduce his financial fair play rules for European competitions, says clubs are “praying” that he forces them to live within their means, while former FA chairman Lord Triesman warns: “Football is far too much like a casino.
"The financial state of the game is precarious and nobody can run at a loss indefinitely.”
Scudamore counters that the Premier League is now doing more to ensure potential new owners of clubs are subjected to a rigorous ‘fit and proper persons’ test before they are allowed to buy a club. Scudamore claims this has been used to block certain recent proposed takeovers.
Lord Sugar Tackles Football, BBC Two, 9pm, Sunday May 8
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/8496169/Premier-League-clubs-discuss-salary-cap-to-curb-English-footballs-debt-reveals-Dave-Whelan.html
By Joe Hare 06 May 2011
Premier League clubs discuss salary cap to curb English football's debt, reveals Dave WhelanPremier League clubs have held talks about adopting a self-imposed salary cap in an attempt to reduce English football’s debt crisis, Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has revealed.
Dave Whelan reveals Premier League clubs have discussed bringing in salary cap to curb English football's debt
Whelan has for several years advocated the introduction of a cap on players’ wages, which he believes are the root cause of the £3.3 billion total debt hanging over English clubs. But his proposals have always been rejected by the Premier League, which is opposed to a salary cap.
Now, in an interview for a BBC documentary presented by Apprentice star and former Tottenham owner Lord Sugar, Whelan claims he and some of the Premier League’s other ‘smaller’ clubs have opened discussions about reaching an informal agreement among themselves which would mean each club being limited to paying only two of their players more than £20,000 a week.
Whelan says: “Bolton, Blackburn, Wigan, Wolves all got together. The first thing you talk about is wages. We thought between us we should impose a salary cap. We said that we clubs within the smaller section of the Premier League, we shouldn’t pay any more than two players above £20,000 a week. It sounded to me very sensible.
"Throughout all four leagues we have got to impose a salary scheme where each league or each club pay so much in wages.”
The documentary, Lord Sugar Tackles Football, will be screened on BBC Two on May 8. In it, he proposes a five-point plan to free English football from its mountain of debt.
*
Like Whelan, he argues players’ wages must be reduced at all levels or more clubs will follow Portsmouth, who last year became the first Premier League club to go into administration.
Whelan adds: “The big problem is wages paid; we’re paying too much, every single club. If we could control wages, I think the Premier League would go from strength to strength.”
But Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore uses the documentary to voice his opposition to a salary cap being imposed across all 20 clubs, arguing that it would entrench the superior financial status of the bigger clubs.
“There are only two ways of doing it,” Scudamore says. “You either cap at a fixed rate, and it’s very hard to know what the fixed amount should be when you have some clubs turning over £40 million and some £300 million.
"The other way of doing it is by a percentage of turnover. Our 20 clubs cannot agree a basis which would be fair. If it was two-thirds of turnover, that would lock in the advantage to the big clubs.”
Yet even if Whelan cannot persuade the League to consider a formal wage cap, there is nothing to stop Wigan and other clubs reaching a ‘gentleman’s agreement’.
The danger of spiralling wages is laid bare in the BBC documentary. Sugar interviews West Ham co-owner David Sullivan, who reveals the club’s Icelandic previous owners were paying similar wages to Europe’s elite clubs.
“They had an unsustainable business model where wages were 90 per cent of turnover,” Sullivan says. “They had players on £60,000 £70,000 and £80,000 a week.”
By contrast, Whelan tells Sugar he earned £20 a week playing for Blackburn in the 1950s, and Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp recounts taking a second job in a supermarket to supplement his income as a player.
Uefa president Michel Platini, who will next season introduce his financial fair play rules for European competitions, says clubs are “praying” that he forces them to live within their means, while former FA chairman Lord Triesman warns: “Football is far too much like a casino.
"The financial state of the game is precarious and nobody can run at a loss indefinitely.”
Scudamore counters that the Premier League is now doing more to ensure potential new owners of clubs are subjected to a rigorous ‘fit and proper persons’ test before they are allowed to buy a club. Scudamore claims this has been used to block certain recent proposed takeovers.
Lord Sugar Tackles Football, BBC Two, 9pm, Sunday May 8
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/8496169/Premier-League-clubs-discuss-salary-cap-to-curb-English-footballs-debt-reveals-Dave-Whelan.html
