Players Wages

[knilly]

Following on from all the talk about missing out on players because we wont pay the wages other teams can offer.

I'd just like to gauge other peoples thoughts on the matter. Personally ive fallen out of love a bit with football because its is all about money, i know its always been the same but now its on a different level with Man City who can afford to pay Adebayor a hundred grand a week to play for a rival.

The questions I would like to ask is, Will the bubble burst? and wages come back down in the near future?

 

[DogsOfWar]

Yes and no as the financial fair play will limit them to a certain extent but they will still be tied in as a percentage of turnover so it depends on the clubs earning potential.

Clubs like United, Chelsea, and Arsenal are earning £200m+ so if they have a 66% wage/turnover ratio that's still £133m+. If the entire first team squad of 25 earned £100k a week that would only come to £125m or so (I've no idea what the cost of the rest of the staff at a club would cost).

2nd and 3rd choice keepers are only going to be looking at £10-20k a week with the same for any youngsters coming through from the youth teams. A 2nd choice full back would probably only be £40k a week etc, etc, so the top strikers could carry on earning £200k a week within that structure.

The bottom line is that the top clubs can actually afford to pay these wages and as long as the footballing bubble doesn't burst they will continue to do so.

And regarding City there is a very good chance they will join the £200m club this season with their new sponsorship deal and a decent run in the CL.

 

[SpursMad]

The other two interesting aspects of this debate are taxes and salary caps. The latter isn't possible due to the lack of cooperation amongst leagues and I doubt that UEFA would ever go down that path though I would like to see it, personally. IMHO, it has done great things over here in the states for sports and made more teams competitive.

The other part is taxes. The tax rate in other countries, compared to England, is quite low. Teams have to pay higher wages to make up for the higher tax rate which probably explains why there aren't as many spanish players in the league and why they stay in Spain. Might see this change in places like Italy as the economy continues to get hammered.