The proposed League One salary cap appears more in question than previously believed with a number of clubs understood to have spoken out against the proposal at last week’s meeting of the 23 clubs.
A cap of £2.5 million at League One level and £1.25 million for League Two has been proposed by the EFL, whose board met last Wednesday to discuss the issue and a number of other matters.
As TWTD reported, League One clubs held a conference call the following afternoon where we understand a number of clubs were against the proposal, with changes to the divisional Financial Fair Play rules requiring a two-thirds majority. No formal vote has yet been taken with further meetings set for the weeks to come.
League One is currently made up of clubs of very different sizes, from the likes of Sunderland and Town, who have spent most of their time in the top two divisions, to sides such as Accrington and Fleetwood, who until recent seasons were in non-league.
This can lead to widely varying perspectives, as the impasse regarding the ending of the 2019/20 season illustrated.
Town would be one of the clubs most affected by a cap set as low as £2.5 million a season, although wages of players aged under 21 wouldn’t count towards the figure and it is expected that there would be a transition period. It's proposed that squad sizes would be limited to 20 senior players aged over 21 with eight homegrown.
In their last season in the Championship the Blues’ overall wage bill was £18.95 million with player wages understood to have made up around £11 - £12 million of that figure.
After relegation, many players’ salaries dropped as a result of clauses in their deals, by as much as 60 per cent in some cases, however, Town’s player wage bill is almost certainly more than double, perhaps three times higher than the proposed £2.5 million limit and will be one of the largest in the division.