We can quit holding our breath (not really) now that Manchester City's Asian tour is over and the European season has largely come to a close.
Our eyes now turn to summer transfers, where the market promises to be footloose and fancy free. Kaka, Ronaldinho, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o are all names surrounded by transfer speculation. Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kaka and Henry are among the top six highest paid football players in the world, according to Forbes.
When the curtain is raised again on the European stage in August, many superstars will have resettled in new countries with a new signer on their paychecks. We could see any one of them surpass David Beckham (pictured above) to become the highest paid footballer in the world.
In the midst of the conjectures and theories about summer moves, I'd like to continue the discussion around the Bleacher Report water cooler about the need for a salary cap in European football.
A salary cap in European football would have the following benefits:
1) Talented players would be more evenly distributed between clubs
2) Smaller clubs that have lurked in the middle of the pack for years might now have a chance to become title contenders
3) As other teams jump into the title race, their worldwide popularity would grow, increasing revenue for those clubs and their leagues
4) Fans could end up paying a little less for tickets to matches
5) The beautiful game might become a little less about money
In the first article on the need for a salary cap in European football, statistics on the English Premier League and the salary-capped NFL were compared. A possible general structure and implementation plan for a salary cap was discussed in the second article. This installment will focus on some possible salary cap rules that would affect the transfer market and player's movement between clubs.
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Marquee Player – One to two players per club would be chosen as a marquee player to have an unlimited salary exempt from the cap.
This would force players who might transfer to consider if they want to win a championship or if they want to make more money. A solid player might have to take a significant pay cut to play for Manchester United with Ronaldo and Rooney possibly being the marquee players. But a star player could also go to a club like Tottenham or West Ham and make some good money by being their marquee player.
In American leagues with salary caps, often a seasoned star player will take a pay cut to play with a championship contender so he can get his shot at winning the before his career ends.
In Europe, it seems that a player can both get a pay raise and move to a championship club. Having a marquee player clause would help spread out the talent pool throughout Europe.
It might force players like Carlos Tevez and Michel Ballack to choose between more money and a chance at championship glory.
Guaranteed Player Contract – In some leagues in the US, a team can opt out of a player's contract and not pay his salary by cutting him. European footballers are going to throw a big enough fuss if a salary cap were instituted, so I think guaranteeing their contract is a good idea.
Players would be guaranteed to get paid the money their contract stipulates, even if they are injured, unless they retire.
Bonuses – Bonuses would fall under the salary cap as well. Proposed bonuses in player's contract would fall under "likely to be earned" or "not likely to be earned".
For instance, if Didier Drogba were to sign with AC Milan this summer, contract stipulations might look like this:
Bonuses likely to be earned:
10 goals scored (€20,000).
20 goals (additional €50,000).
Bonuses not likely to be earned:
40 goals (additional €100,000)
The €70,000 from the likely to be earned category would count towards the clubs current year salary cap, but the not likely to be earned would not.
If Drogba did score 40 goals, then the additional €100,000 would be counted against next year's salary cap for Milan. If he were to miss the twenty-goal mark, then Milan would get an additional €50,000 of spending in next year's salary cap.
Transfer Fees – Regarding the payments made from club to club for transfers, I don't see why a team couldn't buy a player from another team for a high amount, but not count the transfer fee towards the salary cap.
But any amount the player receives in the process of the transfer would count towards the salary cap of the club who paid it.
If an agent received a fee from the club who the player is transferring to, the club would have to count a percentage of that fee (maybe 50%) towards their salary cap, especially if the player is going to get some of that money from the agent. But this would be tricky as the agent could then transfer money to the player according to the agent/player contract (suggestions welcome on this).
The club who is selling the player would not have to count any payments received towards anything. It could just go into their bank.
Sticking with the hypothetical Drogba to AC Milan scenario, this is how these clauses might play out:
Drogba gets €30million from Milan (counts towards Milan's salary cap). Milan pays his agent €3 million (€1.5million counts towards cap) and Chelsea €10 million (not counted towards Milan's cap) in transfer fees. Drogba's new contract with Milan states that he is guaranteed to be their marquee player for three years.
These rules on transfers would still give big clubs an advantage in being able to purchase great players from other teams. It would still balance out as the players might not want to transfer to a big club if they can't be the marquee player or if the team's salary is already near the cap.
Footballers are obviously going to be frustrated if their salaries are cut due to a cap, but I believe a salary cap in Europe will better the beautiful game now and continue to ensure quality leagues for years to come.
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3 months ago
When I first saw this article, I thought heres just another moron complaining about the money in football and how it makes players into walking brand names and all this nonesense.
But you have actually given good, sporting reasons for why a Salary Cap would better the game, and I am now firmly behind this.
Only thing i would say is about the Guarenteed Contract business, football players cannot just be "cut" without a compensation package of some form, and most teams would not do this anyway due to the fact that you can get more money if you where to wait until a transfer window and sell, even if it is for a bargain basement price.
3 months ago
Thanks Harry. What you are writing about guaranteed contract is what I was trying to convey. Are you saying there is no need for a guaranteed contract because that's not how football works anyway?
Having a salary cap might change that. Thanks for the input
3 months ago
I've been bangin on about this for years, It's a logical way to go but there are a few problems with it, namely:
1 The top clubs in europe have a lot of power in UEFA, and why would they santion this. Platini would have to steam roller them to make it happen.
2. Just because ther is a salary cap doesn't mean you would find ways around that with TV endorsements etc. there are plenty of ways to hide payments to players.
The benefits would be enormous for the game, cause I for one am sick of the same old clubs dominating every year.
from 3 months ago
Your first concern is the major problem with the whole thing. Someone in power would have to initiate it, and there would be a lot of people who would not like it. I think the fans, besides Man U supporters, would be happy.
As for the endorsements, that could be tricky. If there was a sponsor who wanted to pay a player to wear their boots (like Nike), that'd be fine. But they would have to make sure that a club wouldn't contract a company, like Nike, to pay their players for them. Good thoughts.
3 months ago
Football is about the money. It`s a business like any other.
If Europe imposes salary caps etc. The other leagues would just pay more and leave Europe largely devoid of some great talent thus leading to diminished interest and even worse losses.
Brazil is the largest exporter of football talent in the world 1085 players in 2007 alone.
70% goes to Europe. With the salary cap they`d go to other countries.......along with the TV cameras, endorsements and the lot.
from 3 months ago
Thought about this a lot. I just don't see a mass rush of people leaving Europe. More people dream about playing for Real Madrid or Man U than Boca Juniors. You see people from S America dreaming about playing in Europe, but not people in Europe dreaming about playing in S America. Europe would lose some talent, but not a majority.
3 months ago
I've thought about this a lot. I just don't see a mass rush of people leaving Europe. More people dream about playing for Real Madrid or Man U than Boca Juniors. You see people from S America dreaming about playing in Europe, but not people in Europe dreaming about playing in S America. Europe would lose some talent, but not a majority.
from 3 months ago
No one in South America dreams about playing in Europe.
Europe pays more.
If Boca could afford higher salaries not one Argentinian would leave home.
Same goes for Brazil.
Ronaldo sits on a Milan bench injured all season racking in the big salary anyway....
gets home first thing he does is go see his real club Flamengo play and go out for a night on the town.
Maradona makes millions with Napoli...gets home and goes see Boca play.
Kaka says openly his heart is with Sao Paulo etc etc.
Europe= Money. Not a damn thing else...trust me on this one I live here.
European cricket players are running to play in the new millionare Indian league right now as I write this. Football will be no different.
An athlete is a pro just like in any other profession ...why can`t people get that. Top Boxers fight when they need money. Footballers go to some strange cold country,leave their family behind, put up with strange food and no sex at times for months....for MONEY.
from 3 months ago
There won`t be a mad rush though. I agree with you on that. maybe only at top player level.
There will be a stop in the flow inward though. Eventually the leagues will go back to how they were in the 60`s....devoid of foreign talent....with stars few and far apart.
3 months ago
Nice article my friend.
from 3 months ago
Thanks man
3 months ago
I think the marquee player clause would allow some superstars from S America to still stay in England. You're right on the influx slowing down. Why leave home if you're not getting paid higher. Hopefully a salary cap would allow for many stars, but with them more spread out between all the clubs, instead of four clubs having multiple stars and others scattered between the rest of the clubs.
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