The English FA is pondering the introduction of salary caps, thus arousing the great political bout of the 20th century: in the red corner the commie socialists, in the blue corner the capitalist pigs.
I like sport because it mirrors life. Sport is a fantasy life.
There are no serious consequences; it’s only a game – unlike real life, where failure in competition can kill you.
While capitalism claimed victory over socialism in the real world, in sport it lives on. The salary cap concept and the player transfer systems, so common in sport, are socialist plots in disguise.
This may shock us all, as we now so despise socialism. We live in a world where ‘The Central Scrutinizer’ puts stuff in our milk to tell our brains socialism is evil, and we love that stuff – what ever it is.
In the salary cap system, ‘The Central Scrutinizer’ regulates the economy, and tells you how much you can spend; in player transfer markets ‘The Central Scrutinizer’ rewards the losers with the best of the next generations’ players.
It’s all aimed at equality; ensuring that the possibility or the hope of victory, is kept alive and spread around in a giant free love-fest, where the people wear sandals, play bongo drums and smile because they feel they’ve been given a ‘fair go’.
Capitalists – and people who would generally win anyway – call it rewarding failure, commie rubbish, and despise it.
In free market capitalist sports, there are no monetary limits. You got the cash; you play; win; then get richer.
The side affect is: in the EPL, if you’re an Aston Villa fan – a good middle table club – you just better accept you are never going to actually win the league… never!
In real life, rich capitalists ease your pain of perpetual loss, by producing public propaganda explaining if you want true reward, try religion – some even start a church to make a few bucks out of it, “hell, why not?” – or philosophies about how material possessions don’t matter: go to India, get a guru, notice the people there are poor as all hell but are “really happy”. This is a pure genius tactic, as even hippies suck that one right up.
But some English football supporters are getting a little bored of the prospect of never winning, and there is also the possibility of the big economic bubble bursting. Both of these factors have the FA at least pondering an alternative commie option.
Now of course rampant capitalism in sport is not pure evil.
The EPL is arguably now the best and richest league in the world. A stagnant monopoly of dominant clubs is not a given. You can become a rich club and win, like Chelsea did. A bored Russian – with money from oil resources that once belonged to an entire commie country – came along and bought them victory.
Now Man City are giving it a go with their own insanely rich guy.
But it gets better; spending big is not assured success, it might fail, like we saw with Leeds Utd; like the minor tremor we see with Liverpool. Now that’s where the new fun is, watching the finances!
And then again, look at Tottenham, where a good English manager and solid effort can still reap rewards – well half rewards anyway.
Football is a bit of an exception in sport world, where commie based systems are rather common. Even in the NFL in the USA, a commie system smack bang in the heart of angry capitalism exists and thrives, where even normally commie shooting truckers sit around, watch and extract joy from it.
That player draft system was adopted by the AFL, where these days, just hang in there and you will win it one day. Even the Swans did!
So while we demand and adore pure capitalism in our real life – apart from getting annoyed with poor people dieing on the streets and getting in the way – in sport, in our fantasy land, we like to make things fair, so everyone can play on an even field.
It is a bit odd, really.
Shouldn’t it be the other way around ?
Marcel Proust
Guest
Why do you call it the EPL ? I don't think we call it that in England.
apaway
Guest
Well said, Phil, however I have 2 minor issues: Aston Villa have at least won the title relatively recently (try being a Sheffield Wednesday fan...) Leeds did exactly what Chelsea and Man City have done, except they did it without the aid of a Russian or Arab billionaire. D'oh, knew something was missing!
Please no...
Guest
I loathe the idea of EPL salary cap. All that would do is turn it into another sport-lite Australian style plastic franchise competition where like primary school, everybody wins at some time and nobody really loses and the rewards for losing really badly are the best new players. Dumb and dumber. As for and EPL play-off, Jesus Christ. I still can’t get my head around a nation that can watch a team win every game of the regular season then lose a play-off and accept the winner of that play-off as the champions. Delusional.
Marcel Proust
Guest
err........no. It is a 38 game season. You get the best points tally = you win, It's a league, y'see.
Jason Cave
Guest
Apart from introducing a salary cap, the EPL should also look at the possiblity of introducing a playoff (finals) series to determine the EPL champions. Can you imagine if ie Manchester United and Arsenal finished 1-2 in the EPL table and instead of Man U being declared EPL champions, the Red Devils and the Gunners played off for the EPL champions title at Wembley-one week before the FA Cup Final. EPL Grand Final one week, FA Cup Fiinal the next...the perfect way to close the English league season.
Stephen Smith
Guest
Well Phil, congrats on (belatedly!) acknowledging that its not just the EPL that has these problems - Europe (at least the prosperous western bit of it) is hamstrung as a whole by these issues. Spain in particular is horribly skewed because of tv rights being separately negotiated by Barca/Real - their income is so ridiculously superior to the rest of La Liga, so no wonder that competition is a boring two-horse race every year. Ideally, there would be a salary cap to ensure some sort of parity - but in the EU, its just not practicable nor possible. The EU considers footballers to be part of the general workforce, therefore they refuse to make them an exception when it comes to limiting their wages. Fair enough really when you consider how many hoops footballers had to jump through years ago to end the era of the player being a "slave" to their club. (Google Jimmy Hill and maximum wage!) Football long ago wanted to be a business (FIFA started the ball rolling by commercialising the World Cup under Havelange), and now, the player has the power - too much most would say - but it's too late to go back. Undoing years of employment legislation is not something the EU wants to do - its too complicated, particularly when you consider that in the EPL (for exammple) there are so many players of different nationalities, how would you set salary cap levels for EU and non-EU players? If those regulations were in force, the South Americans, Africans etc would be the big winners! You just can't regulate a global economy. It's easy for the NFL/AFL/NRU to set salary caps. They are playing minor sports (on a world scale) with no global competition. Where else is there for the players to play? There is simply no market for their services, hence stringent controls can work, especially within national boundaries. A salary cap can never work in the big leagues of Europe - if the FA tried, all that would happen is that all the best talent would move to Spain or Italy etc etc, and vice versa, thus bankrupting the game in different areas. No, the best model is what UEFA is now working towards, that being setting a benchmark for the percentage of club revenue spent on player wages. The one exception to all of the above would be for FIFA to try to obtain a unified "world" salary cap (and to try to impose it!). Good luck getting 200+ members to agree on the principles - they'll be there for the next 400 years!!
Magpie Flag
Guest
A good thought provoker but I think you get yourself into trouble by painting it so as so black and white, rather than on a spectrum. Firstly, while the centrally planned "socialist" economic model has failed and in this sense "capitalism" won we still have a progressive tax and transfer system, public helath and education etc. The EPL, and european football leagues more generally, do not follow the NFL model of binding salary caps and drafts and non-monetary trades, they do for instance (apart from la liga i think) share equally the TV revenue, which i beleive is the bulk of revenue for the promoted clubs. I think you would probably need agreement across Europe to institute a salary cap which may be difficult but surely beneficial. I thnk some of the beneifts would be: -removing the ability for some greedy resource billionaire from artificially raising teams to championships -reducing the incentive for clubs to try to fleece supporters as much as possible -reducing the proportion of the games revenue that goes towards already overpaid players -potetnially better spreading player payments (given more competitive teams increasing their share of income Having said this, I think soccer requires less opponents to be of comparable abilities to have the potential of a competitve outcome. What would happen in Australian football or one of the rugby codes for instance if you had teams of the quality difference of Italy and NZ (as in the last WC) playing eachother?
Derby County FC
Guest
Oh how i wish it were true but let's be honest, the idea is complete folly.
phil osopher
Roar Guru
Not my fault the English language is so inconsistent. Blame the editors. But I shall never do it again now - eternal thanks to you
phil osopher
Roar Guru
Thanks to all peoples. Nice to know Im not just entertaining myself, but at least 8 others. You all have some excellent points. i personally dont know what I think on the salary cap option. There are strong arguments both ways. Im a life long Man U fan but the predictability of their victory has been boring me a while now. Id prefer to see a real competition. But then again, i do agree, can the EPLdo it alone, surely the consequences of salary caps pointed out above are all real. The relegation battle is basically the more interesting part of the competition, which is odd, surely when the main interest is to who will come last has to be concerning, then the interest who will get fourth spot, then theres always the Champions League which is never a given as to who will win that - well for 4 or 6 clubs anyway. Spains la Liga is the the ultimate in negative consequences of the free market - basically a definition of Karl marx's predictions of monopoly. where only two clubs will win it for the next eternity, save economic disaster, making it so dull, despite having arguably the best two teams in the world, I cant follow it anymore at all. The EPL is quickly becoming a copy of that which I find concerning.
phil osopher
Roar Guru
Thanks for your continuing gratitude AF.
Ben Carter
Roar Guru
Hi Phil - Gave it a cheer for the ambitiousness of the article, even if it's probably unfeasible in reality unless every single FIFA-affiliated nation does likewise. And hey, I suppose that's why relegation exists too - even if you're a mid-table team you've got something to play for - like avoiding the foot of the table for another year! :-)
Roger
Guest
Only way a salary cap will work is if all the countries in FIFA agree to it (or at least all the important ones). But yes, I think it does need a cap, as do the other leagues in the world.
gurudoright
Guest
It would never happen. What do you think would happen if the F.A. put a salary cap on the EPL? You would have players like Toure, Terry ,Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Drogba, Torres and Vidic play in the La Liga or Serie A instead of the EPL as their clubs will have the money to spend. It will relegate the EPL below that of the Bundasleugue or the French league. The money that the EPL will lose through TV right would be enormous. It will never happen. The reason the salary cap works so well in the NFL, AFL and NRL is between these leagues have no major rival competition to lose their players to. Yes the NRL has Superleague in England but it is a 2nd rate comp, and now with the British Pound at a very low rate it is not even worth the money to chase unless you are chasing one last pay check if the NRL clubs don't want you. Where else are the AFL players going to go? There is no other high paying competitions to play in. The same as the NFL. The salary cap in soccer(football) will not work unless every single league in the world abides by one. Even if it was just the Europeans leagues that had one, how many players will be willing to stay there if Middle East or Japanese clubs offered more money than a player could receive under a cap in Europe?
Marcel Proust
Guest
P.S. I believe you should write about people "dying" on the street, not people "dieing" on the street. I once made this mistake in an English lesson, around 15 years ago. Regards,
Marcel Proust
Guest
Isn't it true that certain clubs do badly because they're run badly ?? Newcastle should have done much better over the years. However, the club has been very badly run. You can't just blame the other clubs' finances. A club is punished for being badly run. Newcastle is therefore punished. As for us English people losing interest in our Premier League, it has a lot more to do with ticket prices. Perhaps that's why you think salaries should be reduced. But people won't stop watching. What would sports fans in London watch instead ?? Rugby League ?!!?!?!?! I DON'T THINK SO ! ( enjoyed the article, however )
skinner's tv
Guest
Maybe a draft system for supporters should be introduced to. So even the unpopular clubs get a reasonable number fans buying over priced club paraphernalia. Soon my beloved Cricklewood Athletic will be knocking Man U out of the FA cup!
Geoff Lemon
Expert
Nice to see some social analysis and extrapolation going on here, Phil. Great piece.
PaddyBoy
Guest
A salary cap is not a socialist construct, as players are workers, not owners or chief beneficiaries of the club. It is a business model used to restrict costs, and drive up profits through increased competition. The NFL has seven of the top ten wealthiest clubs in the world, all but one (Green Bay) are privately owned and make enormous amounts of money for their investors.
Davstar
Guest
I think to restore balance and make the game more competitive and bring back some club/cultural loyalty all the european clubs been to be capped to some extent. I mean the cap would have to be huge but it still should be locked in place it would probably only really restricted teams like Real Madrid, Manchester City etc from spend loads of cash. But still to give smaller clubs a chance to compete would be the main aim