Updated: Mar 22
As the years go by, salaries in the premier league are getting more ridiculous by the day, and is creating an unfair divide between teams, making the league a pay to win system. But had the Premier League followed in the footsteps of the NFL, NHL, and NBA and introduced a salary cap, would the magic of the premier league return, and would we see a much more entertaining and balanced league?
Here’s why a salary cap in the premier league could help restore balance and excitement back to the premier league.
It's no secret that salaries in the Premier League are ridiculous, and will only carry on increasing as sponsorships, wealthy ownership and higher demand starts creeping into the game. But the addition of a salary cap would not only bring players back down to earth, but would also bring some much needed balance back to the Premier League.
The league is scattered with wealthy oil money owners, and American billionaires who have no interest or no idea of how the premier league works, and are only in it for the business opportunity. But football being a ‘business’ isn't what the fans want. Sure Manchester City and Newcastle fans won't be complaining about their billion pound piggy bank headed into every season, but most believe it's an easy way to win, and a shortcut to success in a league meant for miracles.
But how exactly would a salary cap work? For example, in the NHL, the salary cap allows each team to pay their players up to a combined $90 million dollars, giving every team in the league an equal opportunity at signing the big players. On the other hand, in the Premier League, the divide in annual salary bill between Manchester City and Ipswich is around £216 million a year, a figure so far from balanced it's unbelievable. The introduction of the salary cap would not only give each team a chance to sign the biggest players, and bring a higher compete level to the league, but will not allow teams like Man City and Chelsea to spend money on whoever they want, whenever they want, making it more of a challenge, and more difficult for managers and owner to build dominant teams, bringing real aspects of ‘team management’ back to football instead of just buying the best players.
Although the concept of the salary cap would bring more balance and competition to the title race, it wouldn't have as big of an impact on the relegation battle, but could still be a better concept than the current financial fair play rule which affects teams at the bottom of the table much worse than the top teams. Not only would the salary cap benefit the top teams and make wealthy owners less of an issue, but would allow more competition between the lower table teams. In today's game it's happening more than often that the three teams that come up are also going back back down, and the inclusion of the salary cap may mean the return of more relegation battles, and give teams who come up a much better chance of staying up compared to the chance they have with the FFP rules in place.
The final positive aspect of the salary cap would be the contract duration problem. This year especially, teams like Chelsea have started to hand out 7-8 year contracts to anyone and everyone and allows players to relax and have the safety net of the 8 year contract, eliminating any sort of competition and drive to earn themselves a new contract. With the salary cap, it would bring much more competitiveness within the youth setup and amongst young players in the squad, giving them a reason and a challenge to earn themselves a contract, and only those truly deserving of a new contract gets one under a stricter cap creating it much more competitive and drive, not relaxed and half hearted.
Overall, there are a lot of pros and cons to the salary cap idea, but definitely more pros had the league want to bring the competitiveness, balance, and much needed spark back to the league. Giving teams a limit on their spend would not only give players a much needed reality check, but would make rich owners void, and bring back owners who actually care and have love for the game of football back to the league making the game of football the game we all love, not a business we all hate.
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