[義乙] Salary cap fits Serie B
http://www.uefa.com/magazine/news/Kind=128/newsId=417259.html
自UEFA官網
Salary cap fits Serie B
Thursday, 27 April 2006
by Paolo Menicuccifrom Milan
The Italian football league (Lega Calcio) has taken an important step to ease
the problem of mounting debt among clubs by introducing a salary-capping
system in Serie B starting from next season. Only 70 per cent of the revenue
clubs earn from ticket sales, sponsorship and television rights will be
permitted to be used on player salaries. Any club that exceeds that limit
will lose the subsidy they currently receive from the Lega Calcio - a
guaranteed minimum of €95m shared amongst all the clubs over the next three
seasons - a contribution that is vital for their economic viability. The
salary cap will decrease to 65 per cent of revenue the following season and
then to 60 per cent the year after that.
Financial crisis
Spiralling wage bills have resulted in a financial crisis in Italian
football. In 2005 players' salaries accounted for 85 per cent of club
revenues. The situation has improved slightly, but nearly all Serie A and B
clubs are still in the red, and the game's authorities have urgently been
seeking a solution. The salary cap is part of a larger reform package aimed
at reducing costs. 37mClubs relegated from Serie B (but not those demoted for
sporting fraud or other juridical reasons) will receive a 'paracadute' -
parachute payment - of €500,000 for three seasons to soften the blow. From
next season they will also be restricted to a squad of 22 players, reducing
to 21 then 20 by 2008/09. "But every club will also be able to count on four
additional players from their youth systems and an unlimited number of
under-21 players," said Lega Calcio president and AC Milan vice-president
Adriano Galliani.
'Important step'
The new rules have been welcomed by the great majority of Serie B sides.
"It's a very important step, maybe crucial, to move the economic management
of Serie B clubs in the right direction," Vicenza Calcio general director
Sergio Gasparin said. "Many clubs have faced an extremely difficult situation
in recent years with heavy costs and low revenues." Last season four Serie B
sides (AC Perugia, Salernitana Sport, Torino Calcio and Venezia Calcio) faced
bankruptcy. "That is the clear evidence of what is really happening in Serie
B," Gasparin said. "Every club can respect these new parameters, especially
if they dedicate more resources to their youth systems. We won't have any
problems in this sense as we already have several players from our youth
system in the squad and other players who are 21."
'More strength'
Torino coach Giovanni De Biasi believes the ruling will increase the
importance of player development in Serie B. "We opted for signing
experienced players this season," he said. "We hope to be promoted but the
new rule would certainly give more strength to the youth systems of every
Serie B side." Lega Calcio vice-president and US Citta` di Palermo president
Maurizio Zamparini agrees. "I'm particularly in favour of the rule about
having four players from the youth system in the squads. Youth systems are
the most important resource for every club and should be defended and
improved whenever possible."
'Sudden revolution'
The Italian Footballers Association (AIC), however, is against the changes.
Sergio Campana, AIC president since 1968, said: "The salary cap is not the
solution because it opens the way to bad practise such as unwritten contracts
or other ways to escape the rule, such as image contracts for players. Not
even the rule about the 22-man squad is a good solution. Serie B sides
currently have 24 or 25 players on average. What shall we do with the others?
Shall we send them home even if they have existing contracts? Reducing costs
is definitely the right way to solve the crisis in Italian football, but [it
should be done] with a long-term plan, not with a sudden revolution like they
are trying to do now."
Future plans
A salary cap has already been introduced with success in the third and fourth
divisions in England, and is one of the areas being studied as part of the
Independent European Football Review. UEFA implemented a study into salary
caps at the end of the 1990s, but concluded they were not feasible at that
time. Instead, the UEFA Club Licensing System was introduced as a first step
towards helping clubs runs themselves more efficiently. The National Football
League in the United States uses a salary capping system, but in general
salary caps have only really been applied in sports where there is no true
global player market. Top flight clubs in Italy will be looking on with
interest as the Serie B experiment unfolds, but Galliani insists there are no
plans to use it in Serie A. "We are not discussing the possibility of
introducing similar rules in Serie A at the moment," he said. "But you never
know what might happen in the future."
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