Arsene Wenger has spoken out against the salary cap proposed by the G14 group of clubs, arguing that the measure could cause more problems than itsolves.
The Arsenal boss would prefer to see clubs who do mismanage their finances, being relegated. Wenger was speaking in response to yesterday’s announcement from the 18 members of the G14 group that they intend to limit the money they spend on wages to 70 per cent of turnover from the start of the 2005/06 season.
However, Wenger believes that clubs will circumvent the policy by seeking to disguise the true amounts they are paying their players.
“I’m not a big fan of salary caps,’ admitted Wenger. ‘This route is an incitement to disguise wages andput them in other departments. Clubs could put 30% of a player’s wages in the commercial department for an image rights contract – or buy the player a house and get his wife a holiday.”
“Salary caps mean the maximum wages are 70% of your budget. It doesn’t mean players don’t get more money – because if the budget gets higher, players get more money.”
Relegation,, he argues would be a much more appropriate punishment for clubs who allowed their wages to spiral out of control.
“If clubs aren’t capable of respecting their budget, they should be punished – rather than incite clubs to do more crazy things than they do at the moment,’ Wenger added. ‘I would rather reward clubs who manage well and punish clubs who don’t.
“So if you cannot manage your club reasonably well, you should be punished. If clubs don’t respect their debts, they should be put down a division. That’s the biggest punishment you can get They have that in Italy, France and Germany. Fiorentina went down in Italy, and Marseille and Nice in France. You can get your professional license taken away – and that’s a much better route.”
The G14 clubs are Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia, Marseille, Paris St Germain, Lyon, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, Porto.
