Football Association chairman Lord Triesman has called on clubs to review their wage structures as they look to weather the financial storm caused by the global credit crunch.
Triesman has been advised that professional clubs in England owe around £3billion, and claimed on Tuesday that some could be in "terrible danger" as the economic crisis takes hold.
Despite reassurances from Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore that top-flight clubs were at no immediate risk, the FA chief believes measures to tackle spiralling wage bills could be one way to reduce their financial burden.
Triesman claims salaries are growing by around 12% a year and are becoming an ever greater problem for clubs throughout the English game, and insisted that an outright cap was "not inconceivable".
"I'll be told, no doubt, that if you want to compete at the highest levels you've got to be competitive in the wages market as well," he told Sky Sports News.
"I just make the point that there is a volume of debt which becomes very significant in those circumstances and people need to think about it.
"I'm told by people right through the football pyramid, down in the Blue Square (Premier), for example, that the issues of working with agents, trying to deal with wages right the way through the system is now impacted (by the credit crunch)."
On whether salaries need to be capped, Triesman continued: "People at the clubs are the only people who are going to be able to judge that, but I start with a general proposition that we have, in this business as in so many other businesses, a level of debt which should cause us to stop, think and review where we are."
Your Comments
HolyGoaley
"Instead of a player wise salary cap, why not have a team wise salary cap ? you cannot spend more than x million dollars on the teams salary per year ... that way if Ronaldo plays well and has to be rewarded he will get his raise and Nani on the bench therefore might have his salary reduced if they have to stick to the teams salary cap."
rorschach
"The reason a cap can work in the States may be that there is not a competitive international market for their mainly pretty talentless journeymen. I can¿t see many yanks wanting to give up their careers over there in return for the chance to play in one of our lower leagues and the fact that the Premier League isn¿t stuffed with Americans shows that our top teams don¿t want to sign them. Plus across the pond there¿s a single governing body to monitor salaries and a pretty high level of respect for the laws and low corruption. Could the same be said for all European countries? What do you think would happen if one of our clubs were bidding for a player against the top teams from ¿ooh I don¿t know ¿ possibly Italy and Spain? Could you be 100% confident a deal under the table wouldn¿t be offered by one of the others? "
muzzolini07
"my idea on wage cap would be a max a week for any player such as ¿xxk a week, then introduce incentives for players, each player would get a fixed rate for apperances & bonus ie ¿xxk a week for clean sheets for goalkeeper, ¿xxk a week for clean sheets & successful tackels for defenders, Midfielders for assists successful crosses etc based on midfield position and striker of course in goals, not only would this cap wages but would force lazy ungreatful players like Wayne Bridge to actually work for their money. In essence, the more you play the more of a chance you have to EARNING yourself a bit of cash."
furnivk
"US sports all run salary caps and we are also a modern country under the rule of law, so why couldn't it work? They have stars, free agency, image rights yadda yadda. One interesting thing I liked was that in baseball you can voluntarily overspend (which the Yankees do to a great level) and the team involved than has to match the overspend and pay it to the league to be distributed to the other teams. So you really have to want to over spend if you'll be subsidising the opposition to the same level."
mistergrimshaw
"Not just a wage cap but a transfer cap so each team can only spend the same each window, surely this would not only help with the huge bills teams are facing but might help even the playing field somewhat."
rorschach
"A cap would never work as players, agents and clubs would find ways around it. If a player has to buy a house now, maybe the club would buy one for him to live in and so save on his mortgage payments. Maybe the club would (allegedly) employ the WAG in some sort of so called marketing role. The possibilities would be endless."
slocey
"i'm all in favour of a salary cap, but there will still be ways around it. you can limit player x to £50k a week, but they will also want bonuses of £30k a game, £10k a goal, and £20k a week in "image rights"."
cragglerock82
"Would be nice if they did it because then they might be able to lower match tickets to a reasonable level again."
TheBallsOnVidic
"Morgski - I think you'll find that nobody needs more than £49,000 a week. villa365 - why does the ref spend 20 minutes booking a player? That really is super-duper-slow-mo! On a serious note, how about each club has a certain amount for wages every week (or game) and the fans decide who gets paid the most. Anything is better than Nani pocketing however many tens of thousands every week for playing the way he does."
gulliver
"I think wage caps are a brilliant idea in theory. However what needs to be taken into consideration is that footballers are a bunch of greedy avaricious scumbags who would see their supporters enter a second dark age and eat s**t off the floor rather than not buy that fifth Ferrari. "
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