Banning Transfer Fees OR Moving To An NBA Style Trading System

Would this make things fairer?
Is the NBA Model transferable?
Could clubs survive without transfer fees and instead have use a central arbirtration board?

I know some FIFA Top Brass have looked into banning transfer fees as a way of equalizing the playing field of top teams monopolizing their leagues and the transfer market, whilst keeping the EU quiet on labour regulations (odd as the EU usually smashes them up but anyway....)

http://www.euractiv.com/section/com...-eu-ban-high-transfer-fees-after-neymar-deal/

 

Should work a treat, the top teams would get players for free. Wonder why they don't bring it in.

 

Thats a good point on the problems of the system.

 

If they want to make it fairer I think a global wage cap would be a much better option but I can't ever see it.

 

Does the NBA have that?

 

Nfl has a squad one. One of the few things that could be brought over

 

For the ignorant amongst us for NFL, explain pal...

< Pulls Up Chair>

 

Pretty sure there's some form of wage cap for the NBA but it changes every year and i'm not sure on the specifics of it.

 

Cant say i know the specifics on how it is determined but nfl teams have about 170 million to spend on wages for their squad every year. 53 men in the first team.

They can divide that up amongst the players however they want after they pay each player their basic salary. The basic/minimum salary increases every year youve been in the league. The basic rookie salaray is just under 500k p.a while a 10 year veteran would earn a basic 1 milion.

Current highest salary is 135 million split over 5 years. He also received a 50 million signing bonus.

 

WOWZA

 

So we’ve spent 130 years establishing ourselves as one of the biggest football clubs in the world, in order to adopt a draft system that might provide us with a team that can compete for an honour, once in a period of years, if we’re lucky, or that might provide us with a team that can only fight for survival?

* that.

 

Would it give the SPFL as a competition though and therefore its winners (us) more respect?

 

The only thing that would work is a transfer fee and salary cap working in tandem. If the UEFA capped the Champions League and Europa League for example to a £200m per squad value then transfer fees would fall as £80m+ players simply couldn't get into a squad without the team making huge sacrifices to make the cap, even a £50m player would take up 25% of their allowance and would put teams off spending that money unless they see it as worth it for their domestic league. As an added bonus that wee rat * Neymar wouldn't be allowed to play in it at all

 

The only thing that would work is a transfer fee and salary cap working in tandem.

If the UEFA capped the Champions League and Europa League for example to a £200m per squad value then transfer fees would fall as £80m+ players simply couldn't get into a squad without the team making huge sacrifices to make the cap, even a £50m player would take up 25% of their allowance and would put teams off spending that money unless they see it as worth it for their domestic league. As an added bonus that wee rat * Neymar wouldn't be allowed to play in it at all

Players could be valued like so:

Players would be valued according to their latest transfer fee.

Players obtained for free would be valued according to their previous transfer fee.

Players brought through a clubs youth system would be valued at £0.

Players obtained from another clubs youth system would be valued according to their development fee or for countries without such rules a flat valuation of for example £3m.

Players bought for £50m+ before the rule change would have a flat rate valuation of £50m.

While teams like PSG could still break the £100m barrier on a player it would no longer affect European competition as that player simply would take up far too much of their squad cap and would have to be left out so it would be down to their owners to decide if paying that money to stroll to the Ligue 1 title every season would be worth it and down to that player whether he deems it worth it to move for that fee when chances are he won't play in the CL.

Obviously there's probably going to be a lot more to it than that and obstacles to get around while implementing it but it would be a start and if it was a success then UEFA could then pressure (tell) the Leagues around Europe to introduce their own caps to further drive down the transfer fees.

 

There is much that can be learned from other sports and leagues from around the world.

The current problem and most immediate stumbling block to anything like this, such as a salary cap etc, is that it would have to be all inclusive and a system that all leagues and governing bodies agreed with and were willing to actively police. And more than just the sports authorities but as we are talking about EU employment laws that cross borders, for example, which again it would take further regulation to try and handle these complicated issues.

Even if this was something a majority were willing to entertain, all it would take is one country, one rogue league that decides to say, stuff that, and offer these wages and transfers anyhow and it could possibly create the catalyst for the whole structure to collapse.

A centralized and industry leading league that virtually has a monopoly of the market of any particular sport does have a big advantage when it comes to implementing and policing things such as salary caps. All of the best players in that sport want, and effectively need, to play in that one competition. Take the NFL for instance, in which, say a Quarterback who is at the very top of the game there has to be playing in the NFL if they want to be making the money they think they are worth.

Football is different in that way. With th stupid money on offer in England, Spain, Italy, Germany etc, means that when a player can switch and because it's a different league in a different country they are subject to completely different regulations by the governing bodies in that country, working in compliance with the EU employment law. Think of it as in the context of here in the UK players can be subject to being granted a work permit before they are permitted to officially joining a club.

The closest thing would be if teams played exclusively in a European super-league and not in their own national leagues. Again, NFL, MLB etc don't have things such as promotion/relegation so in the hypothectical eventuality that such a league became a reality, then promotions/relegations wouldn't factor into it either.

Salary caps do offer a solution, with 2 caveats to enable this. Either, a 'luxury tax', so if clubs wanted to buy someone who would blow their salary cap out, then there is a 'tax' for how much over it exceeds the cap, and that money is then distributed to the other clubs. This is essentially how it works in MLB, for example.

At the other end of the spectrum is as it is set up in the NRL in Australia, where clubs have to strictly adhere to staying beneath the cap. Breaches of this are treated extremely seriously. In 2010, Mebourne Storm, for instance, were stripped of 2 Championships (2007 & 2009), 3 Minor Premierships (won for being the best team after the regular season before the Play Offs) in 2006, 07 & 08, were not allowed to accrue a single competitive point in the 2010 season (so, irrespective of winning or losing a match they would get zero league points), had to forfeit and return all prize monies earned over that 5 year period (which was redistributed to the other clubs) and a hefty fine to boot.

That was systematic financial doping done to obtain a clear sporting advantage by having players that they could not otherwise legally have retained and/or signed. And it is reassuring that the Authorities there acted with integrity when this was discovered. However, this highlights my point about different countries and the authorities willing to not sell sporting integrity out, such as those here in Scotland, where, no doubt, would be considered acceptable behaviour, and dismissed as 'imperfectly registered but eligible'.

Another way that football could benefit is with a draft system, again, as seen in the AFL, NFL, MLB etc. The best young players each season are allowed to be drafted, and the order in which this is determined is that the worst performing club gets first pick, the second worse gets second pick, an so on. This has proven most successful in evening the playing field with teams with smaller markets etc benefitting from having that player on their books for a couple of seasons, the player benefits by getting first team football more regularly than if they were at a big club, and the bigger clubs can still come in for that player after a couple of seasons with either a transfer fee or a deveelopment fee for the club that the player was at.

Clubs in various sports have also been known to use this to build a really strong team over a number of seasons. Just this year in the MLB, the Houston Astros won the World Series after having been able to build a team around a core of really good young players acquired and kept over a number of seasons, and added a couple of real top class performers this year when it did seem possible that they could go all the way - which they did.

So this effectively aids in balancing between both strengthening the competition as well as levelling the playing field.

 

I think it will naturally go this way anyway due to players, all it will take is for 1 big player at their peak to run their contract down and leave on a free to someone and get a signing bonus of £30million+ instead of a club paying a transfer fee before all other big players start doing the same. Like if De Bruyne was out of contract in the summer and decided to leave on a free it would become a bidding war between everyone and he could probably command a signing bonus of about £50million which is likely what he'd get for playing for a team for 5 years if someone bought him yet he'd still be getting his wages on top of this.

It's a matter of time really before it happens as there's too much money in the game now.

 

Might see it with Alexis Sanchez in the summer if he runs his contract down

 

All wage caps lead to, are under the counter payments or ebt style wages.
Like when rugby union was *,the same thing happened with athletes as well

 

No thanks.