Salary cap will kill Championship’s last lifeline — ambition
NOT a minute too soon, it seems the Championship clubs have come to their senses. There is unlikely to be a cap on ambition in the second tier, following the intervention of Brentford, Norwich and Bournemouth. Those three clubs, all chasing promotion, took apart the proposals to enforce punishing salary limitations on the competition, in a way that would leave its members helpless if promoted to the Premier League. What is astonishing is that the flaws even needed highlighting. Little here was revelatory. Not every club in the Championship is Wycombe Wanderers. Some have wealthy owners who wish to invest; others enjoy healthy crowds and
commercial potential. Why should they be limited to an £18million cap just because some of their rivals do not wish to spend, or are happy to tread water? And why would a new owner buy into the league, if progress is thwarted by red tape? As one executive at a Premier League club calculated, an £18m cap would equate to salaries of £12,000 a week. Players who can be recruited for that cost are unlikely to be of elite standard. Promoted teams would need to spend greatly to survive, or simply yo-yo between the leagues. If the same three went up, went down, went up, went down, the Championship as a vibrant competition would be dead. The reason it remains among the most popular leagues in Europe is its uncertainty.
Ambitious owners getting it right, getting it wrong, complete surprise packages like Sheffield United or, previously, Blackpool. ‘Impotent,’ was how the salary cap’s opponents described their future status. It is too late for the leagues below but no different there. John Coleman, manager of Accrington Stanley, spoke in favour of the current salary cap regulations — already implemented — but his club are among the beneficiaries. ‘If people policed themselves, were more prudent and respected the football club, the sport could use this as a chance to reset,’ he said. ‘Look at clubs like Notts County who were spending ridiculous amounts of money in League Two. The absence of a regulator probably led to the need for a salary cap.’
Yet at the time football shut down during the 2019-20 season, Accrington were averaging crowds of 2,862 in the same division where Sunderland were drawing 30,118, Ipswich 19,549 and Portsmouth 17,804. Sunderland’s gates were bigger than any club outside the Premier League. How can they be tied to the same budget as Accrington Stanley? And why is the duty to be prudent, rather than to invest to get a club of that size out of tier three? Football is more than accountancy with groin strains. The Championship is a compelling league because clubs have the ambition to leave it behind. Strangle that and it’s just inferior football, played by inferior players in an inferior competition, all appeal and relevance gone.