Removing the salary cap alone may have "concerns". But keeping a salary cap also has issues

You have to remember the default position for any league is to not have a salary cap. And those leagues that want one will implement it if they can prove doing so will improve the league

The salary cap might work in the other codes where they are in a position to regulate the market for player payments. And it might be an option for leagues who are concerned clubs are spending outrageous amounts to win a title. But neither of these are true for our league


Imagine a scenario where the league is closed off and CCM have no chance of making the finals, and no chance of relegation. Do the people of Gosford not want a team? Do they not want to see some of the biggest clubs of any code in this country play at their ground? Do they not want the increased sponsorship, media attention, and the potential for investment?

For 25% of bandwagoner fans, seeing a team lose a game is as bad as it gets. But for the community and core fans not having a team to support is much worse. Even our teams who have bombed the whole season and have a string of dead rubbers at the end still get more than teams in second divisions. A club that doesn't have a realistic chance of winning will not die

The real problem clubs at the bottom pose in a closed off league is the teams at the top might end up resenting sending a large chunk of all funding to teams that give up mid season, which risks a break away league. But it is a risk, not an inevitability

What a great post. It simply amazes me that we have people in charge of football who claim they understand football and yet fail to follow the simple model that has been laid out by FIFA and genuinely followed by the leagues in France, Italy, Germany, Spain and England. 

In order to have a strong football league you need to have all the moving parts connected and moving as one big machine.

1. No salary caps
2. Pro/Relegation
3 A proper pyramid with multiple tiers connected.
4. Transfer fees and participation in the football economy.
5. Player development and academy systems
6. Developed of coaches and referees
7. A club system where fans are closely connected to their club including voting rights and a real influence in the clubs behaviour.


It just drives me crazy because the reason none of this is properly introduced is the simple fact that we think we are unique and an outlier to all the other nations who play football. I am not even talking about the average man in the street, but club owners, media and Administrators alike. We have all been hoodwinked that the only way to administer the sport is to follow what they do in the NRL and AFL, rather than follow what they do bigger and better in the big leagues of Europe. Tearing my hair out right now. GRRRRR

This is just the PFA pushing there own agenda.

I have nothing against getting rid of the cap in principle - but that is a secondary concern. In a closed league it will lead to rich clubs dominating the league - not by outrageously outspending the smaller clubs - just by doing enough Again,in principle I don't have a problem with that. 

The real problem is the slow pace of expansion and connection to other parts of the football pyramid. This has been the problem for years. You fix that and salary caps, transfers and P & R make sense. In the current closed league they will just kill a club they have nowhere to go. Equally with the current disconnect there is no club ready to take their place in a hurry.

Attack the real problem and the rest will come easily.

The people against removing a salary cap and saying it will only lead to a two horse race, repeat after me:

There is no incentive to completely outspend other clubs for a prolonged period of time.

We need to make sure Victory don't have a chance against Kashima so that Central Coast can finish 44 points below Sydney because we're all equal and this isn't all rigged, no way mate..

Why do we need to equalise the league. It makes no sense pegging the standard of our league to our worst teams. Can we not accept that there are big teams and that there are smaller teams just like in every other football league around the world. Thats not even what annoys me, its the fact that every single team, even the Mariners is owned by either a multimillionaire or billionaire. So those teams who we would label as "small" actually have the potential to be big clubs if we allow them to be and if we participated in the football economy. The reason why we label them "small" teams is simply for the fact they are in small market but as I mentioned before EVERY CLUB has the potential to be massive because they all have rich owners with deep pockets who could line their squads with absolute top players if the salary cap wasn't  there. With proper investment in players and a league where we can sign at least the best players in Asia and the 2nd tier player in Europe would result in exponential growth in our league. They just wont do it though. 

Maybe we need to introduce a soft salary cap like the NBL/NBA with a luxury tax.

That enables clubs, if they can afford it, to spend whatever they want but with any amount above the cap being subjected to a Salary Equalisation Subsidy, or ‘luxury tax’.It’s a system that sees the funds generated by that tax distributed to teams which may otherwise find it difficult to meet the cap.

 Helping big teams grow and become more competitive in the ACL while also helping the smaller clubs out to grow with additional revenue.

So… if a club spends over the cap by 1-15% they pay 25 cents of luxury tax for every dollar they exceed the cap. If the percentage spend is 16-30% over, they pay 50 cents on each extra dollar. That rises to $1 for every $1 over if they exceed the cap by 31-50% and finally, the tax is $1.50 for every $1 spent over the cap if the percentage spend is over 50% above.

Perth are owned by a Perth millionaire Tony Sage who has said he will have to find partners to be able to invest more in the club and Newcastle is owned by a Chines businessman who owns Ledman and they have lost heaps because of Trumps tariff war.  I think the Jets are open to offers.

I'm not sure how much Walker is prepared to put in to Macarthur but he is worth $2.9b.

isnt Perth and Newcastle foreign owned by billionaires? should also mention that western united and macarthur are pretty loaded with cash too.

The csl  had no say in the matter.  The chinese government made the changes because of the lack of betterment for the national teams.  And the fact the foreigners who go to china usually end up back  in europe in no time 

but are they the minorities, might be everyone except for the four big Syd/Melb clubs

Lol the clubs are complaining about the 'rich' teams running away with the competition, whilst Sydney currently maintain an 8 point gap over second with a game in hand under current salary cap rules - last season, Perth won it with an 8 point gap over second and the season before that, Sydney won the title with a 14 point gap over second...

The last close season was 15/16 when Adelaide did the double - I can't remember what's changed since then, but it's been a whitewash in the league ever since.

But no, the salary cap ensures everyone has a fair chance of winning the title...

So who would be the clubs 'for' keeping (the cap), and those who would be 'against' keeping (the cap)??

im willing to bet that the taxes would be worth more than the entire a-league

Wasn't aware of that. But still alot better than what we've got. 

China implemented a cap on transfers  anything over 10 mil gets taxed

Greedy? The npl clubs only get 3k  per player. 

I'm sure that's exactly what the clubs are already are doing. I reckon they also like to mention that a growing number of international players have become Australian citizens after playing here for only a few years. 

Melbourne clubs need to sell their "coffee scene", Brisbane to sell the "good weather and beaches scene" and Perth to sell the idea of "Bali holidays on long weekends" to foreign players 😂.

But honestly, clubs in Australia should look at promoting the lifestyle to overseas players. It's one of the only advantages we have at the moment over the richer Asian leagues. 

so we are gonna let the minorities rule us? nah fuck what they think

And this is the reason the likes of Castro, Borich, Ninkovic etc have come down under. 

Clubs need better scouting etc but probably too much $$$$

Doubt we would be able to compete with China in Asia for transfers. Only selling point in aus is the lifestyle. 

Its the greedy NPL clubs pushing for this, fk em! It stays as it is. If there where fees then players wouldn't be signed simple as.

LOL

The Cap cant go until we have promotion/relegation.
At least at the moment there is some semblance of competitivity.
A totally lopsided competition where perpetual losers sit at the bottom of the league will kill off what is left of the league.

Australia will lose control of the League very quickly!

we all agree on this board, well, most would, but it looks like a good chunk of clubs want the cap (I'm guessing its clubs like the Mariners, Jets, etc )

the other missing piece of the jigsaw is the short term contracts most players are on, maybe that will resolve itself if the cap is scrapped and a transfer system is introduced, I don't know, but as things stand, right now many players have less than half a season left on their contracts, they can all walk at the end of the season

get rid of the bloody thing. let the creme rise to the top

If you ever want to cash in on the Asian and European transfer market, the cap has to go, it's that simple. TV revenue isn't going to keep growing so the only option is to become a selling and buying league. This will put the onus on developing players and will have the effect of improving the league and national team, then we might start to see TV revenue growth again.