The future of the A-League salary cap

 
Pippinu Roar Guru

By Pippinu, 4 Jun 2009 Pippinu is a Roar Guru

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Many views have been expressed on the operation of the salary cap system since the inception of the A-League some four or so years ago. The pros and cons can be summarised as follows.

Pros:
1. Guarantees financial discipline.
2. Gives all teams an equal chance (relatively speaking) at winning some silverware, thereby attracting and capturing interest for what are essentially new football clubs.

Cons:
1. Provides insufficient reward for those clubs achieving success.
2. Provides insufficient incentive to continue improving.
3. The overall quality of play stagnates because good players can’t be attracted to the league and/or the better younger players are quickly lost to overseas leagues.

A few alternatives, or at least improvements to the present system, have been suggested over the last few years, and these can be categorised as follows:

1. Introducing additional categories along the lines of the newish youth player category; and
2. Following the Bundesliga model of linking the salary cap to the turnover of the respective clubs in some way, shape or form, such that the higher the turnover, the higher your salary cap is.

It has recently occurred to me that a winding back of the salary cap regime is possible without it necessarily ushering in an era of overspending and financial irresponsibility.

How?

By focusing on two rules:

1. The foreign player limitation (which will retain a linkage to the ACL rules, or at least as close as possible); and
2. Over age rules, i.e. each club being allowed a maximum of so many domestic players over a certain age.

Let us take each rule in turn.

Foreign player limitation
Let us assume it will remain very similar to what it is now, or is about to become (and pardon me if my understanding of it is a bit fuzzy), but I’m thinking of the 4 plus 1 rule, meaning 5 foreign players, of which one must come from within the ACL.

The new salary cap regime would be limited to this category of player alone.

This is the one category of player where the sky can be the limit, but it’s also a category which carries a fair bit of interest and which can quickly usher in a sense of excitement for fans.

I would favour a salary cap applying to this category of player only, but a relatively generous one to enable the recruitment of decent players (say, around half of what is currently applied to the whole squad, or around the $1.2 million mark).

Overage limitation
This initially sounds counter-intuitive, so hear me out first. Let us assume that over and above the 5 foreign players, each club is allowed, say, a maximum of 10 domestic players aged over 21 at the start of the season.

The rest of the roster can be filled up with any amount of players aged below 21.

No salary cap would apply to either the over or under 21s. What is the immediate effect of this rule?

1. Clubs must have very strong youth programs to have a steady stream of ready made players who can step into teams as required.
2. There is a strong incentive to retain the elite youth players (those on the verge of going overseas), for maybe one more year, and the capacity is there to do so because no salary cap is applying to all domestic players.
3. For the non-elite youth players, well, let’s be honest, they are relatively cheap, so the absence of a salary cap is neither here or there.
4. As for the maximum 10 players aged over 21, well, let’s be honest again. If they’re good enough to play in a top overseas league, they are out of our price range anyway, no need for a salary cap there. On the other hand, if they’re playing for an average comp, the A-League club now stands half a chance of competing, but with a maximum of 10 such players, there’s less risk of financial irresponsibility.
5. It may open up the opportunity to attract Socceroos home before they turn 34.

One downside: what happens if there are a surplus of over 21 players, and insufficient spots on rosters? I’m not sure whether such a scenario would ever arise, or whether you would even notice it.

If your 141st over 21 player can’t squeeze into a club, what does that mean exactly?

His place is being taken up by an under 21 player – hardly a disaster.

Managing the movement of players from one category to another would present a bit of a challenge, but over time it would become a standard part of list management at all clubs.

In case anyone hasn’t worked it out yet, much of the financial responsibility comes from clubs being forced to carry as many U21s as over 21s (with the presumption that your U21s are generally going to be more affordable, with some notable exceptions).

The main attraction for me here is seeing the focus taken right away from squeezing players’ wages into a very tight salary cap, to more one of balancing your under and over age players and focusing on the development of youth.

And I can’t help but think that this a good thing.

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