Millers boss backs salary cap plan
ROTHERHAM UNITED chairman Tony Stewart has backed plans to bring in salary caps for League One and League Two clubs next season.
Under the EFL proposals, third-tier clubs would be given a £2.5m ceiling for wages spent on playing squads, while the amount would be down to £1.25m for teams in League Two.
The plan would see clubs given automatic points deductions if players are not paid on time.
Earlier this month, EFL chairman Rick Parry spoke about the need for some form of cap on players’ wages as being “essential”
to football’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis after publicly warning that clubs will have to fill a £200m financial ‘black hole’ in September .
Stewart told The Yorkshire Post: “I do believe that a salary cap will bring a lot more control and mean that clubs will be probably go for longer.
“With the £2.5m, we’d have to cut back as we (currently) spend more than that.
“But it does make it more manageable for the clubs who have not got the finance or fanbase to create the wealth to invest in the players.
“I do think that is a real positive move for the future because it stops the entrepreneur coming in and just throwing five or six million for a couple of seasons and creating a tidal wave of injustice to those who have been putting in many hundreds of thousands of pounds for many years. It creates an unlevel playing field.”
Stewart is the first to acknowledge that the capping of player wages will only form one part of a wider survival plan required to enable clubs – more especially those in the lower-leagues – to withstand their greatest crisis.
Parry referenced the problems in his evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee when he said that he “completely agreed” that a substantial rescue package would now be needed to help support EFL clubs.
Parry stressed the EFL needed a “proper reset post-Covid” in terms of the redistribution of revenue in football and described parachute payments as ‘an evil that needs to be eradicated’.
The former Liverpool chief executive also revealed that he supported the Professional Footballers’ Association’s appointment of financial services firm Deloitte to look at club accounts to assess if there was a genuine need for wages to be deferred.
While stating his view that deferring wages is the equivalent of ‘kicking the can down the road’, Stewart says he has been enthused by Parry’s attempts to actively find solutions to enable clubs to survive – but admits that time is now of the essence.
Stewart said: “They have all the cash flows of League One and
Tony Stewart, Rotherham United chairman on proposed salary cap for next season.
League Two clubs and can see the dire consequences.
“I do think Rick Parry and his team are putting the work and effort in and understand the situation. I do think they will come forward with certain proposals -– whether it is borrowing money or this, that and the other.
“That is what is being talked about now, but all I am saying is that it needs to happen in the next couple of months – and I might be stretching it by saying a couple of months. I probably should be saying in the next couple of weeks.
“Our cash flows show that by the end of June, we are £550,000 short in our cash flow projections, year on year. If it went onto Christmas, that would grow to over £1.5m.
“It is seeing what options we have got. Will the players take less money, can we have deferrals, can we get money from the Premier League? What about the Government?.
“Some (clubs) have taken deferrals, but that is just kicking the can down the road and the debt is still there. So that is not going to go anywhere.”
While all Premier League clubs and virtually every Championship club is back in training in readiness to fulfil this season’s commitments in the summer, the situation in League One is very much up in the air with the majority of clubs wanting the campaign to be ended.
The EFL have delayed the return to training for League One clubs while they await a final decision on the future of the season, with Covid-19 testing yet to begin.
Stewart, doubtful about the prospect of League One clubs finishing the season by the EFL deadline of July 31, added: “They (Rotherham players) have all kept themselves healthy and are gagging to get back training.
“But because of health and safety, it would do us good to end the season and prepare for all the work that has to go in with the preparation – not just at the training ground, but the stadium (for next season).
“There are lots of things to do to qualify and tick the boxes regarding health and safety.
“There’s things we need to do and it all takes time. This vote (on League One future) probably won’t be announced until Tuesday or something like that – by which time you are into June.
“Then, you have to call the players back for training. That window of opportunity and chance (for playing this season) is getting smaller and smaller.”
With the £2.5m, we’d have to cut back as we spend more than that.