[Archived] Is The Premiership Becoming Boring?

[Drakefyre]

I fail to see how a flat salary cap could do anything but help Rovers and increase league parity.

[broadsword]

Or even a flat cap salary?

[PL Project]

I fail to see how a flat salary cap could do anything but help Rovers and increase league parity.

The salary cap idea could be done in a few ways, as you guys have pointed out though it would need to be Europe wide as UEFA have proposed in the Independent European review 2006.

the ideas for salary caps I'm mulling on are:

1) Hard Cap a la NFL where you take the average revenue of clubs and say no club can spend more than 60% of this number. However this means the biggest clubs spend less than 60% and the smallest clubs over 70%, still stretching the smaller clubs

2) 60% of revenue of your club - however this means that the best players will still go to the biggest clubs

3) Salary Tax - set a maximum salary and fine clubs who go over it. sure, chelsea would still spend more but the money fined could go back to small clubs or beused in grassrooots programmes

I think a key thing is that slary caps won't work independently, they need to be accompanied by revenue sharing at the least.

What do you think?

[Mr. E]

No way. In fact, I haven't been this excited about a season for a long time. I think it's going to be great.

[S15]

How would a salary cap help? That would suit only the big clubs, with consistant high attendences, shirt sales etc.

Trading is an idea I like the best. If Man Utd want Bellamy, we'll have Saha tar. Arsenal want Reid, we'll have Gilberto and so on.

Also, like in America, allow trades like.... Chelsea want Duff, we'll have Gudjohnson and Zenden, as we think Duff is worth twice as much as both players.

Works well for everyone IMO.

[speeeeeeedie]

I like the salary cap being % of revenue idea with a "luxury tax" for offenders. I'm still mulling over revenue sharing. Big teams will do better but it would eliminate some disparities. The luxury tax revenue should be split between non-offenders and grass roots projects. Each non-offender gets an even % of the share and all clubs get a sliding scale piece from the grass roots fund with low revenue clubs getting more.

Shillito, could you not trade players for cash?

Edited August 16, 2006 by speeeeeeedie

[Hughesy]

Not boring no.

I quiet enjoy watching other clubs trying to catch Chelsea despite their billions and I don’t think it will be long off before someone does catch them.

The premier league itself is a quality league and the competition for 4th – 8th is fierce and its something that we are currently involved in.

So NO not bored with it.

The only thing I would like to see added to the premier league is Celtic & Rangers

[Drakefyre]

How would a salary cap help? That would suit only the big clubs, with consistant high attendences, shirt sales etc.

Trading is an idea I like the best. If Man Utd want Bellamy, we'll have Saha tar. Arsenal want Reid, we'll have Gilberto and so on.

Also, like in America, allow trades like.... Chelsea want Duff, we'll have Gudjohnson and Zenden, as we think Duff is worth twice as much as both players.

Works well for everyone IMO.

It doesn't help the "big" clubs - it limits how much they can offer in wages. And it protects "smaller" clubs. And the line between big and small clubs will blur. It doesn't matter how much money you make after breaking even because it can't be pumped back into the team directly - only through stadium, training, youth, etc.

[cletus]

A flat salary cap?.......i thought that was something vegans wore?

[daveoftherovers]

A flat salary cap?.......i thought that was something vegans wore?

Top 4, V. Boring IMO, although UEFA spot interesting as well as the dog fight at the basement

Champions league = 90% boring (Unless Barca are playing or the mickey mousers are turning Spartak Kensington over (Again!))

As for us this season, can't remember looking forward to a season so much for an age!

(Passport out!)

[S15]

It doesn't help the "big" clubs - it limits how much they can offer in wages. And it protects "smaller" clubs. And the line between big and small clubs will blur. It doesn't matter how much money you make after breaking even because it can't be pumped back into the team directly - only through stadium, training, youth, etc.

But it also limits how much we can offer in wages, as we probably pay a much higher percentage of our income on wages when compared to teams like Man Utd, Liverpool, Newcastle, Chelsea, Tottenham, Man City,...

Infact, most teams in the EPL!

If teams could only spend 65% of their income on wages, then those teams would be able to spend 65% of a larger amount of money than Rovers could.

[Drakefyre]

That's not a flat cap - that's a percentage of income cap.

I'm suggesting capping total wages for all players over the age of 17 at the club at a certain number (probably different for each division, but not necessarily), like 750k pw for the squad.

[Baz]

The salary cap idea could be done in a few ways, as you guys have pointed out though it would need to be Europe wide as UEFA have proposed in the Independent European review 2006.

the ideas for salary caps I'm mulling on are:

1) Hard Cap a la NFL where you take the average revenue of clubs and say no club can spend more than 60% of this number. However this means the biggest clubs spend less than 60% and the smallest clubs over 70%, still stretching the smaller clubs

2) 60% of revenue of your club - however this means that the best players will still go to the biggest clubs

3) Salary Tax - set a maximum salary and fine clubs who go over it. sure, chelsea would still spend more but the money fined could go back to small clubs or beused in grassrooots programmes

I think a key thing is that slary caps won't work independently, they need to be accompanied by revenue sharing at the least.

What do you think?

It doesnt matter anyway - its not in any of the "big clubs" interests to make a change - they are due to their financial positions able to fend off the "smaller" clubs in many different ways. Why would they want to share revenue?

To protect themselves they can already offer much bigger wages than others.

They can afford to buy smaller clubs best players and keep them as squad players.

Through the G14 they influence seedings of european cup competitions so that they only get to play lesser teams - essentially taking all competition out until the later stages once revenue is guaranteed - Arsenal, Man U and Liverpool all have much higher "champions" "league" (both terms in speachmarks, as neither is true) rankings than Chelsea for example, how can that be fair for Chelsea (no matter how much I despise them) so that they will always draw harder games than the others despite being the champions of England for 2 seasons and many points above the others??

The cases in Italy show how deep some the intent of these clubs are to keep their revenue stream intact, as an ex ref said - if you make a bad mistake against one of the "big" clubs, you dont get big games to referee that season, yet when the mistake is in favour of "big" clubs those mistakes seem to matter less. The intent of the "big clubs" is now to make sure they are so far ahead of those below that they will never be caught - no longer a sport - more a business.

Yes hard salary caps would be great to some extent but to be brutally honest out of ALL the prem clubs, very few would want to swap - many see Premier League survival as success in relation to their last 20-30 years achievements.....

The only way anything will change is if the "big clubs" start seeing their revenue declining

Overall, though with the new season approaching do I think the premiership is boring? No, predictable in a lot of ways, but not boring

[USABlue]

Boring? No Effing way, not most of the games. Perhaps the outcome of who wins the league is boring, but to watch, most of the time I think the footy is great. Let's not let them Refs and the FA cock it up, keep it full speed, bit of rough and tumble, deal harshly with the cheats.

I saw some lower league highlights and I already see the World Cup flopping has caught on nicely there, let's not allow it to creep any further into our game. Let's have the rules the same for all sides also.

I love it, after you watch a few games of other leagues you can see just how much the Prem stands out.

[USABlue]

The salary cap idea could be done in a few ways, as you guys have pointed out though it would need to be Europe wide as UEFA have proposed in the Independent European review 2006.

the ideas for salary caps I'm mulling on are:

1) Hard Cap a la NFL where you take the average revenue of clubs and say no club can spend more than 60% of this number. However this means the biggest clubs spend less than 60% and the smallest clubs over 70%, still stretching the smaller clubs

2) 60% of revenue of your club - however this means that the best players will still go to the biggest clubs

3) Salary Tax - set a maximum salary and fine clubs who go over it. sure, chelsea would still spend more but the money fined could go back to small clubs or beused in grassrooots programmes

I think a key thing is that slary caps won't work independently, they need to be accompanied by revenue sharing at the least.

What do you think?

I've harped on about your points 1 & 3 on several occasions and I think it is the only fair way, more NBA style than NFL though I think. The danger with that format is simple, if the money is not enough the players will simply go to a country where it is. The % of turnover thing is stupid and it is hugely unfair, it continues to give the big clubs the upper hand. The salary cap goes on the team, not the player so one team can still pay big salaries to several players but the must then be careful with the other.

As the NBA does they have a luxury tax, you can exceed the Salary cap but a large percentage of what you go over is paid to the league. This could be sent to smaller clubs, grass roots football programs even.

Having said all that, I took a great deal of enjoyment from Rovers season last, apart from the quality of our footy, simply because we are a little fish who dared to swim with the big ones, there is something special about a 'lil old Town team whupping the giants, Salary cap would perhaps make that aspect less enjoyable

[Perth_Rover]

The Premiership is definately becoming boring. Whereas once the majority of teams considered themselves in with a chance of a trophy at the start of the seasons this is now the preserve of only the top four clubs.

I no longer look forward to the season as a whole but only to individual games. It is still exciting to face the 'big' teams such as Chelsea, Man U and er Birmingham City in that particular game but over a whole season 90 percent of clubs no that they cannot compete.

To bring back the excitement of yesteryear I suggest the following Europe wide regulations for top flight clubs be introduced by UEFA.

1) Only one non-European player to be allowed in any club's squad.

2) A maximum first team squad of 24 players.

3) Five players in the first team squad to be under 23 years of age and, of these, two to have played at youth level for the club.

4) Ten percent of gate receipts given to the away club.

5) Clubs can only add to squad in transfer window if a player is also leaving the club.

6) A salary cap to be introduced at 25% above the current average wage of the big four leagues in Europe (England, Germany, Italy, Spain). Only increasing with inflation. Clubs with existing wages above this level continue without increase until under this level.

7) None of the above to apply Birmingham City who will be automatically promoted to the Premiership and be protected from relegation, in recognition of their status as a 'massive' club.

Some of those rules are similar to the a-league, like the squad of 20, salary cap etc