Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
D-MAC’S BIG IDEAS FOR SMALL CLUBS
Macanthony’s recipe for preventing more finacial disasters like the one that sank Bury 10-POINT CHARTER FOR CHANGE:
PETERBOROUGH owner Darragh Macanthony has called for a wage cap of £6,000 a week to stop more League One and Two clubs going out of business like Bury.
“If we don’t do something, it will be someone else’s club to go bust next,” he claimed. The Posh boss has formulated a 10-point plan to ease the financial strain in the lower leagues, including a £2million fund to bail out stricken clubs. And the Irishman, who has put £15m of his own money into Peterborough, wants players and their union, the PFA, to agree to limit salaries for the good of the game. “Players need to step up and do their bit as well,” he said. “It is crazy when you hear of guys getting paid 10-15 grand a week at League One level. There are warning signs when you hear that.
“I know football careers are short and they have to make hay while the sun shines – I am not naive and I understand how it works.
“Sometimes if you have made a few quid in football, you have got to look and think: This club is going to go under. What can I do?
“A lot of people in the game were saying about Bury that a reckoning was coming because they were handing out some massive contracts.
“I am all for a wage cap. I like the way they do things in America with the NFL.
“I think a lot of the clubs would get behind it.
“If a giant club came down, you could give them two years dispensation on the wage cap. But players have to take responsibility as well.”
Financial Fair Play rules in League One limits player expenditure to 60 per cent of turnover (50 per cent in League Two). But that has not stopped Bury’s expulsion from the EFL.
Bolton were saved just days away from liquidation, while Macclesfield players have again gone unpaid, too.
Each League One club is believed to receive £881,000 in Sky TV money plus an annual £675,000 solidarity payment paid by the Premier League.
But the financial reality is that owners like Macanthony need to inject their own money – and sell players like striker Jack Marriott to Derby – just to keep even well-run
LINCOLN manager Michael Appleton has warned Peterborough his side will fight fire with fire this afternoon.
Posh’s front three Mo Eisa, Ivan Toney and Marcus Maddison have 24 goals between them so far.
“They’re very dangerous,” said Appleton
(right). “A lot of League One managers up and down the country would love to have that type of artillery. But we have got some dangerous players ourselves.”
clubs solvent. “Over the years I have put in £15m,” said Macanthony, the real estate millionaire who took over at the club in 2006.
“I have got some back so right now the club probably owes me £5-6m.”
Darren Ferguson’s side, with Mo Eisa and Ivan Toney up front, are the top scorers in the division going into today’s match with Lincoln.
“We turned down nearly £5m for one of our strikers on deadline day,” added Macanthony.
“For any reason we don’t get promotion this season, we know we have an asset base that we can refer to.
“But I would say even a small club in League Two is probably losing upwards of £1m a year.
“If nobody starts the conversation it is just going to carry on.
“We are going to get more clubs getting into trouble, more going out of business and more heartbroken fans.
“We need action right now to ensure that another Bury does not happen.”