English Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore says capping players’ salaries does not make economic sense and would make English clubs uncompetitive in European competitions.
UEFA president Michel Platini has advocated curbing wages by introducing a ceiling based on a percentage of a club’s revenue, saying it would level the playing field amid the global economic downturn.
However, Scudamore said on Monday such a system would like “be pulling the drawbridge down” on smaller clubs, regardless of whether the ceiling was fixed or linked to revenue.
“If you have a club on a STG230 million ($A525 million) turnover (Manchester United) or one on a STG40 million ($A91 million) turnover (Wigan), what is it fixed at? You couldn’t seriously fix the amount at STG40 million for a club that can generate STG230 million,” Scudamore told a British parliamentary group investigating football governance.
“That would make us hugely uncompetitive with the rest of Europe and the rest of the world.”
Top players in the Champions League are often paid around STG8 million ($A18.25 million) per year.
Salary caps are common in American sports, but Scudamore said the U.S. system would be unfeasible in England.
“They don’t have to play in anything other than an American context,” Scudamore said. “There are 32 franchises, those franchises are played in cities that would rank as big as in our top-six sized cities in the U.K.”
Scudamore claims a “natural restraint on wages” already exists because most clubs spend 60 per cent of their TV revenue.
“The clubs’ income right now, Manchester United’s income is the largest in our league, but in some ways it’s a product of the years 1958 to ’68 when they became globally popular before they won the European Cup for the first time,” Scudamore said.
“That STG230 million, which started in 1958, and has continued today, if you lock a percentage of that turnover to your wage bill you are giving that club a huge advantage forever based on its history.”
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