British Expatriate Network

Anyone take any notice of the comments by Dave Whelan, the chairman of Wigan?
He's suggesting that there should be a salarycap imposed in the Premiership to bring back some kind of parity to the smaller clubs in the Premiership.

Ive got my doubts that it'll ever fly, but I do think that there is an ever widening gap of the haves and have nots. European competitions, particulary the Champion's League is a big money spinner for all european clubs. I know that a big budget isnt any guarantee of success, (Newcastle) and there are teams like Charlton who have built their teams over a few years and are having some early success, but I do think the premiership is slowly spinning out of control. I'd personally like to see some kind of salarycap, but Ive said this before, I dont think I'll ever see it in the Premiership?

http//news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/4270348.stm

It's getting too expensive to watch top flight football, and attendances are down over the past 2 years.

It is spiralling out of control.

I think if they introduce one, most of the best players will bugger off to other countries in search of higher salaries. Now, if UEFA could introduce one across Europe, then maybe it would work.

Isn't there a salary cap in the Championship nowadays?

Put a Cap in England and they all go to Spain .....I agree its out of order right now but I don't know what the answer is , I would love to see a rule limiting the number of non British Players playing in a team if that were possible

A limit to the overall wage bill for a team as a proportion of income might do it. It might also help spread the good players across a number of teams. I also like the idea about limit on non-British players. I think we used to have that, but its contrary to European Free Trade rules nowadays... roll

I thought about the limit on european players too.....
Isnt there still a limit to an overseas player in the County Cricket League?

I agree, I think there would be an exodus of players going all over europe. Do you think it might be better for the english game?

There is but the salarycap is voluntary

Besides a salary cap I think English clubs should stop paying absurd prices for average British players. A few examples -

Curtis Martin - from Luton to West Brom for 3 million.
Nathan Ellington - from Wigan to West Brom for 4 million.
Peter Crouch - from Southampton to Liverpool for 7 million.
Sean Wright Phillips - Man City to Chelsea for 21 million.

Now, Blackburn bought Emre for 3.4 million. Would you rather have Martin or Emre? And while I like Crouch Liverpool could have bought players like Dirk Kuyt and Jan Vennegoor for 7 million. Now I'm not arguing that Liverpool should have bought them, but if clubs didn't insist on paying silly amounts then perhaps we wouldn't see clubs like Portsmouth buy 7 average foreign-born strikers because they can't afford a decent British player.

And nobody will convince me Phillips is worth 21 million.

A lot of times when a club has a prospect or a player who has a lot of hype around them and clubs like Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and etc.. make it publicly known that they are 'looking' or are 'interested' in the player then clubs will increase the asking price because they know that the big clubs will pay a little over the top, just look at Essien for example, and Peter Crouch. I realise that the Essien example is of a foreign club but they all seem to do it. Just think how much over the odds Real Madrid has forked out for players over the last couple of seasons?? shock

I've been away too long to be au fait with the state of football but; are the British clubs making less money than the European clubs, that they need a cap? The suggestion has been made here that if the Brit clubs had a cap, the top players would go abroad. That seems to imply that the foreign clubs don't have money problems.

they have the opposite.


over-indulgence problems.

British clubs, on the whole, pay the highest wages. Yes 20 other European clubs pay absurd amounts too, but a mid-to-bottom table Premier League club will happily pay crapola like Diomansy Kamara or Djimi Traore double what other European clubs would.

Thankfully the kind of nonsense that happens in France, Italy and Spain doesn't happen in England. So you won't get Man Utd being relegated to the third division ala Marseille a few years back for bribing refs. Or the FA won't decide to just ignore drug tests like the Italian FA did with Fernando Couto, Edgard Davids, Jap Stam and oodles of Portuguese players for some reason. And you won't get the government laundering money to Arsenal or Chelsea like the Spanish FA does for Atletico and Real Madrid, and Barcelona for "cultural preservation."

Not at all...this ain't the NHL, or the NBA mate. Football is way bigger than that, and you ain't going to tell me that if you have some african player that is way better than an english player, and cost less, you will abandon that just to sign the englsih one?

Where do we draw the line then, no foreigner owning a club? These people are businesmen and women, and are only concerned about profit. They couldn't give two monkeys who is playing or where they are from, as long as they are banging in the goals.

Am sure Abramovich couldn't care less where Drogba and others are from, especially with their 7 wins from 7 this season so far. Now if only my arsenal would spend a bit more eh

It is curious that Italian Serie A has so much money sloshing about, yet more people turn up to watch British Coca Cola Championship games (actually the 4th most watched football league in the world) than attend Italian top league football.

Maybe cap the couch potatoes? wink