The salary cap system: a necessary evil or a painful hindrance?

When European managers come to the A-League, often the first thing they are puzzled by is our persistence in utilising a salary cap system.

Under this system, A-League clubs must prevent spending over $2.6m AUD in wages and must spend at least $2.34m, with some exemptions for foreign players and loyalty players. However, while the aim of this system is to uphold the competitive nature of the A-League, it is clear we sacrifice the quality of our league as a result.

The salary cap system is certainly beneficial when it comes to maintaining the competitiveness of our league. In the past few seasons, we have had different clubs wining the grand final from Sydney, to Adelaide, to Victory and to Brisbane.

We go into every season with a sense of unpredictability as to who is going to win. Granted, we can have some idea – the ‘big clubs’ such as the two Melbourne and Sydney ones are always going to be strong – but we are never really in a situation where the richest club always wins.

Melbourne City spent big last season, being the only club able to fill all of the marquee slots, yet they went missing in action during the finals.

How boring would it be if the same clubs win the league year in and year out like it happens in Scotland, France, Spain and Germany?

Under this system we can have unpredictability, which makes it ever more entertaining for the viewer.

If there were no salary cap system, what is to stop one of the richer clubs such as City from ‘buying the league’?

They would be able to price out every one of the smaller clubs for talent, making every season as boring as the last.

However, while this is all well and good, this competitiveness comes at a huge cost.

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Let’s do the maths here, if there is $2.34m that must be spent on salary, and an A-League club has 23 players, then the average salary for players is about $101, 739 per player per year – assuming this is a squad without marquee players.

When you compare this to other median salaries in Asian leagues such as China ($341, 615) and Japan ($208,800) – both of which do not have a salary cap system but do have promotion and relegation – it is no wonder other Asian teams constantly outperform us in the Asian Champions League.

It is also no wonder why top A-League players leave our shores to play in these leagues.

Bruce Djite of Adelaide United’s 2015-16 Championship Squad, who recently transferred to Korean side Suwon FC, said as much so when he claimed “a player would earn five times as much here than they would in the A-League”.

While it can be argued the salary cap system makes things more competitive on a national level, it is causing us to remain uncompetitive at an international level.

Can the cap even claim to support a competitive national league? It may be true that we have constantly changed champions over the few years, but what about the bottom of the league?

In the 2016/17 season, there was a gap of 44 points between first-placed Sydney and bottom-placed Newcastle. In the season before, there was a gap of 36 points between bottom-placed Central Coast and first-placed Adelaide.

While I acknowledge Sydney had a record winning streak and the Mariners were undergoing one of the worst seasons in A-League history, it can be argued that if these clubs were given greater funds to work with they could have been far more competitive in the league.

Just look at how Melbourne Heart was able to transform itself from equal-last in the 2012/13 season to now being one of the larger clubs in the league. Sure, money does not guarantee success, but it can definitely come close.

We need a drastic overhaul of the system that allows us to maintain a somewhat competitive national league, as well as allowing us to improve performances in the ACL.

There must be an overhaul of this cap, or else our best players will continue to leave the league and continue to stunt the growth of the most participated-in sport in Australia.

The FFA needs to find a balance between keeping the A-League competitive and paying players enough to keep them in Australia. (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)

An obvious change would be to allow A-League clubs to pay each other transfer fees.

This would greatly increase the competitiveness of our league, as clubs would be able to reinvest those funds into the squad as opposed to directly trading players or being forced to release them.

Lower ranked clubs who have talented players would be able to invest that money back into the squad for greater results. It is ridiculous that this is not already implemented in the league.

Of course, the salary cap itself also needs to be increased to a reasonable standard.

I do not agree with completely removing it and I am sure we can still be a successful league with it implemented.

Take a look at the US’ Major League Soccer – they have a salary cap of $4.85m AUD and, of their 22 teams, 11 have won the MLS Cup.

I am not saying we double our salary cap, because some clubs would still not be able to compete with those figures. I believe we need a small increase in our cap, enough so our best players do not continue to be so underpaid in comparison to other leagues.

Enough to the point where we are constantly making the knockout rounds of the ACL.

We need reform, but what would be an acceptable amount Roarers?