A-League salary cap punishes success, writes Mark Bosnich

IF the traffic’s not bad, it’s only a short drive from Olympic Park to Parramatta — just 11km separating the Wanderers’ temporary home from their original one while it’s rebuilt.

But on the day of the second derby of the season, it must feel like the club has moved light years away — not just from its home of the past four seasons but also the success that was built there.

It’s a situation made even more painful by watching their opponents on Saturday, Sydney FC, conquer all before them to be so far ahead at the top of the league.

Just a few months ago at the end of last season it was Western Sydney chasing the glory, and theirs is a case that makes me more certain than ever that we need a radical overhaul of the A-League.


A-League salary cap punishes success, writes Mark Bosnich.
In short, it’s time for the salary cap to go, and for free-market economics to hold away in Australia’s football competition. Let me explain why it is that the Wanderers are sitting outside the top six, and why scrapping the cap would stop them and others like Adelaide from being penalised for being strong. It’s very simple.

Eighteen months ago Tony Popovic ripped up his squad and started again, just as he seems to do every year. But in that case he brought in players who he needed to play a new brand of football, and they were highly successful in that enterprise.

But the problems for teams that do well here come months down the line, when successful players in successful teams seek rewards for their achievements. Popovic made offers to the stylish Spanish duo Alberto and Andreu at the end of last season that were limited by how much space he had in the cap. Both players elected to leave in search of better deals elsewhere.

Then cashed up Asian leagues came calling for some of the club’s best servants in Mark Bridge and Nikolai Topor-Stanley, offering them deals far in excess of what they can earn here. Another two bricks were ripped from the citadel.

The same thing happened to Adelaide United, where the hangovers from the Grand Final party had barely abated in May before suitors came calling for their best players.

Other A-League teams cherrypicked some, while European and Asian clubs stole others — all of them able to pay the market rate.


Wanderers coach Tony Popovic applauds his team from the sidelines.
In essence, we’re penalising success. Teams in the A-League don’t even get prize money, and then — to add insult to injury — the competition’s rules make it nigh-on impossible to keep their squads together when they do well.

It’s true we have a new TV deal, thanks to Fox Sports, with $350m to be invested over the next six years and more (hopefully) to come from a free to air station.

But while some of that will feed into the cap, clubs have already made clear they want a large proportion for themselves to pay for their day to day business.

Only Australia and America have a salary cap, and it’s not appropriate here any more. The argument was always that it creates a level playing field and prevents the rich clubs dominating.

Well guess what — we already have an equalisation device by virtue of the fact that six of our ten teams get into the finals.

What the cap does is penalise success on so many levels, especially when coupled with the ban on transfer fees between A-League clubs. In their rush to make sure ours was a balanced competition, its architects have ended up stifling innovation.


The Wanderers need to reboot their campaign on Saturday night.
REBOOT NEEDED

While it’s true that the salary cap is a major reason for where Western Sydney are, the brutal truth is that football demands success — especially at a club like the Wanderers that has become accustomed to winning ways.

From the beginning I’ve been a great champion of Paul Lederer, a brilliant chairman and passionately engaged with his club. He’s a demanding owner, as he should be.

But I’m from western Sydney, and there are rumblings among the supporters — about the temporary new home, the results, the coaching staff. In the end it’s the coach who carries responsibility for the results, whatever the circumstances.

That’s why Western Sydney, and Tony Popovic, really need a win in the derby on Saturday. With half the season to go, there’ll be no better opportunity to reboot their campaign.

Originally published as Bosnich: Salary cap punishes success

http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/football/a-league/teams/western-sydney/aleague-salary-cap-punishes-success-writes-mark-bosnich/news-story/70269ec0c31679b74291c3cde9034b88

He gets it

Bozza looking after the big cities. At least Merrick's got our back.

That's bs mcj

Gosford Newcastle and Adelaide would have the same right as everyone else to spend.

That's bs scott.

Just like how those 3 franchises have the ability to buy 3 expensive out of cap marquees but don't.

?

How is Adelaide being cheap Melbourne or Sydney's fault?

It's not "their fault".

The whole opinion piece is rubbish:

1. The argument that Adelaide is at the bottom because the cap prevented them from keeping players is rubbish. It could well be the same for WSW but I don't pay that much attention to them. I do know Topor-Stanley was here at the start of the season and Poppa didn't want him. 
2. Letting teams spend as much as they want on players somehow encourages innovation is rubbish. If anything, the cap encourages innovation in other areas.
3. The finals being an "equalisation device" is rubbish. Adelaide have made the finals every year since 2012 and it's in no way something to get excited over.

To be utterly frank, the big cities are the only ones that actually matter. People watch their games and constantly talk about them on social media whilst media eyes are constantly fixed on these clubs. They are the ones that TV actually want to show, they are the only ones that aren't too cheap to embrace the Champions League properly and they drive the majority of interest in the competition.

To restrict their level of squad investment and future success is self-defeating nonsense. 

Ok jules the entire planet is wrong... generations of football is wrong... and youre right.

This. It doesnt get more "this" than this.

Always remember, we're special and Australia is different.

Lol. Theyre never gonna let us forget :P

If the big cities were all that mattered, then the NSWPL and VPL would have been huge and there'd have been no need to have a national comp.

Here comes the cavalry

The 4+1 rule is equalization enough to stop the fear of a Bayern-esque monopoly. 

Jules

If there were 2 leagues a NSW Vic league and a Qld WA SA league I know which one I would watch.

Yet more people watch the A-league than all 5 of those combined. Funny about that.

Same here.

I mean its not like the best clubs in the history of the game in Aus arent from vic and nsw anyway...

The cap doesn't punish success, poor recruitment does

They serve a purpose by making up numbers in the league. 

what an arrogant statement. All teams matter not just the Melbourne and Sydney teams

They matter but not as much as the big teams. Otherwise FTA stations would be killing themselves just so they can show Central Coast vs Newcastle 

Bozza for FFA chairman. 

Pretty much. It's also why the league is generally in a better shape when the big 4 are top of the league compared to when it's CCM, Perth and Newcastle there instead.

I think that FFA will increase the top 6 to a top 8 in the future. But under the current system I would like to see them scrap the cap and change the finals format.

2 things about it that are wrong imo.
The fact that 1st has to play the same amount of finals games as 2nd and that 5th and 6th have the possibility to play a GF against each other.

I think it should be
Round 27

Wednesday
5 v 6

Friday
3 v 4

Sunday
2 v 5/6

Friday
Semi (two middle ranked teams left)

Sunday
1 v lowest remaining team

Sunday
GF

You get 1 extra finals game. It also means for 1 to win the gf they have 2 games, 2,3,4 have 3 games and 5 or 6 have 4 games.

This is an extra incentive to come first (to spend).

I would argue that they're more important than that but you acknowledge they actually do matter at least. Progress :laugh:

No argument there. They also want competitive and entertaining fixtures. How do they fill 27 (possibly more after expansion) fixtures with those sorts of fixtures involving those 4 teams when they're significantly better than the other 6/8?

So they rig the league to ensure it isn't rigged

But the cap hinders good recruitment

There's more to Australian football then just Melbourne and Sydney, that's why we have the cap