If the Premier League controls salaries…

The idea of a maximum salary cap was discussed at the Premier League's annual meeting this week. Although it was not approved, the idea will still be retained and may become a reality in the future. Accordingly, every Premier League club will only be allowed to spend a maximum annual salary fund equal to 4 times the TV copyright revenue of the club ranked last in the league. Specifically: the team ranked last in the Premier League last season, Southampton, received 102.5 million pounds from TV copyright revenue. So no club next season will be allowed to spend more than 410 million pounds on salaries.

The salary fund of star collections is at risk of being controlled.

The aim of this regulation is to reduce the gap between rich and poor, thereby increasing the competitiveness of the world's most famous national championship. As with many other ideas, there is a division of praise/criticism, approval/criticism among Premier League clubs, so it is not certain that the idea of controlling salaries will become a reality. It is understandable: the Professional Footballers' Association and stars with high salaries like Kevin De Bruyne or Erling Haaland are all against it.

The disadvantage of the above regulation is that there is no specific figure for the long term. Based on Southampton's TV revenue this season, the salary budget of Premier League teams next season cannot exceed 410 million pounds. But the TV revenue of the bottom team next season is different, and there will be a different "salary ceiling" for the following season. And the player's salary is already signed in a contract with a term of many years, how can it be changed! Therefore, the only thing worth discussing here is the idea of controlling the salary ceiling, which the Premier League has never announced. Specifically, it seems that there is still a need to discuss further.

The "good" point of this idea is that if it is quickly applied, strong teams in the Premier League can get ahead of the times and will not fall into a confusing situation if UEFA regulates salary control for all European football in the near future. UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has repeatedly stated that UEFA will quickly implement this idea (each European club can only spend a maximum of 70% of its income on salary and transfer funds). On the contrary, English clubs may be at a disadvantage in the short term when competing with "rich" clubs in the continental arena. Suppose Manchester City, MU, Arsenal are controlled to a salary fund of no more than 410 million pounds as mentioned above while Real is currently spending 458 million pounds/year in salary, PSG spends 645 million pounds/year, then that is obviously a disadvantage for English representatives in the Champions League.

Controlling the maximum salary budget means controlling the ability to attract stars - this is also a controversial detail within the Premier League. For strong teams like Manchester City, their revenue comes not only from domestic television rights, but also a large part from the Champions League. According to the principle of financial fair play, they should have the right to pay more salaries. And there is news: the money shared from the Champions League in the future could skyrocket by 30%, due to many different factors. Leveling the revenue of Premier League teams, by relying on the television rights of the national championship, and then leveling the "right to pay salaries", is unreasonable.

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