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Evans: We Will Accept and Deal With Salary Cap
Saturday, 8th Aug 2020 14:15

Owner Marcus Evans says the Blues will accept and deal with the League One salary cap despite being one of the sides to vote against its implementation. Town would appear to be left little scope for additional signings this summer even with the season ahead one of transition.

Yesterday, the £2.5 million cap was narrowly passed by one vote with 16 clubs - the required two-thirds majority - voting in favour and seven against, while one abstained.

“I have said before that I think football needs to press the reset button in terms of some of the financial aspects of the game,” Evans told the club site.

“But we were against the introduction of the salary cap in this format at this stage. It restricts our reinvestment considerably.

“However, a decision has been made by the majority of clubs. We accept it and will deal with it going forward.

“All clubs are in the same boat so wages are going to be facing a downward pressure. It will take a little time for agents and players to realise that clubs just can’t pay more and start to accept the reality of these new levels.”

The £2.5 million covers basic wages, taxes, bonuses, image rights, agents’ fees and other fees and expenses paid directly or indirectly to all registered players.

Under the new regulations, squads will be limited to 22 players aged 21 or over for 2020/21, reducing to to 20 players from 2021/22. Clubs must deliver their named squad to the EFL at the end of the transfer window. New Year's Day is the cut-off date for players turning 21 so Flynn Downes and Andre Dozzell, who were 21 in January and May respectively don't count as senior players.

Town currently have 20 players deemed 21, including full-back Barry Cotter, striker Aaron Drinan and keeper Harry Wright.

In the season ahead players under contract prior to yesterday will be treated as if they are earning an annual wage of £113,000 - significantly higher than previously understood - and then £125,000 - currently the average League One wage - if they are still under those existing terms in 2021/22.

All the 20 players aged over 21 except the likes of Cotter, Drinan and Wright will be on wages higher than £113,000 and when totalled their salaries already exceed £2 million, even without sundries such as agents' fees, and it appears the Blues have little room for manoeuvre when it comes to adding players aged over 21 to their squad this summer with manager Paul Lambert understood to want to make three or four signings.

Some players may move on permanently freeing up some space on the wage bill, defender Toto Nsiala seems likely to depart for example, while the salaries of players who go out on loan are removed from Town's total.

The Blues are among the League One clubs who will be most hit by the cap, although more so in future seasons than during the transition stage.

In their last season in the Championship their 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, the current player wage bill is almost certainly still more than double, perhaps three times higher than the limit and will be one of the largest in the division.

Following yesterday's vote the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) described the move as “unlawful and unenforceable” and has issued a notice of arbitration on the EFL.


Photo: TWTD



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positivity added 14:27 - Aug 8
do you know when the date for being u-21 is? we have a few players who are 21 but only recently (dozzell/folami/downes etc). not sure if they are in the count or not?
0

Scuzzer added 14:35 - Aug 8
I would think that secretly he is really pleased with the prospect of spending less money each season.
8

BlueSwede added 14:46 - Aug 8
Could just employ all the players in his company, parttime pros and parttime (say an hour a month) in Evans' company at an outrageously huge salary for an hours work.
2

PhilTWTD added 14:52 - Aug 8
positivity

New Year's Day, so Dozzell and Downes count as 20 this year.
2

ElephantintheRoom added 15:01 - Aug 8
Fancy having to work to 9and manage) a budget. Welccome to the real world
3

ArnieM added 15:05 - Aug 8
Again , I come back to Lambert . I was astounded that when he took over from Hirst , that he didn't look to reduce the bloated squad he'd inherited Yes , many were in contract, But he appeared to have no Interest in getting shot of any players. This I believe led him to embark on his rotation system ( to keep everyone happy as he saw just . Which never works) . So now we are stuffed for this . Unable to shift players on high wages which means we almost have a transfer embargo as a result.

Next season will see a massive clear out , and before time. But once again it demonstrates this Club's total inability to plan and manage.
7

Daz added 15:20 - Aug 8
He could invest in the club still using decent loan players in
0

Daz added 15:21 - Aug 8
tidy under 21 loans that is
0

Suffolkboy added 15:21 - Aug 8
Lots to be made clear yet : and until ALL detail is revealed it'll be difficult to judge the scale of the challenges ..the most important of which is the legality of the so called ‘ agreement ‘ AND whether and how it can be equably implemented .
Water and bridges to be negotiated !
COYB
1

prebbs007 added 16:15 - Aug 8
Yeah you will make even more money out of our club to rinse us even more. So dodgy. So many lies.
0

billlm added 16:27 - Aug 8
Scuzzer my first thought when I saw the article heading,
2

RegencyBlue added 16:40 - Aug 8
Was that the money he wasn't going to invest in the squad anyway?

3

therein61 added 16:58 - Aug 8
Over to you Marcus the porn barons running west ham(and at Birmingham) have been finding ways of topping up wages and abusing every system going for years, give them a bell.
4

Skip73 added 17:09 - Aug 8
Of course he'll accept it. Another great excuse to not spend any money.....again. As for transfer embargo's, you'd think we already had one.
2

RobsonWark added 17:31 - Aug 8
Does paying off players contracts come in to the equation?
If not, ME could still invest money by paying off Chambers and Skuse contracts and signing some quality youngsters.
Let's do this Marcus!
5

Dissblue added 17:58 - Aug 8
So we will meekly sink into permanent oblivion with the blessing of the owner.
5

jas0999 added 18:33 - Aug 8
Reinvestment?! Really? Hasn't done so for years, so I'm sure Evans will be thrilled by this.
5

AYACCA added 18:36 - Aug 8
I think £5 a week and a packet of B&H is more than enough for a footballer
1

leftie1972 added 18:59 - Aug 8
Is it easy to find out who the top earners in the club are and see who we could afford to let go without affecting the team too much.
Definitely more youthful teams being put out on the field in coming seasons then.
2

Kulturarv added 20:02 - Aug 8
You play your role well Marcus. You must be absolutely devastated by this early Christmas gift.
#oscar-for-best-actor-to-MarcusScrooge
3

Surco72 added 20:27 - Aug 8
Another excuse for Evan's not to invest on a cap that can never be legally enforced , and if you are hiding behind this which has been talked about for over a year why give a 5 year contract to an under achieving manager and a new contract to a player like Skuse who is seeing his time out and looks poor in this league ?
Because Evan's doesnt really care as long as supporters buy new shirts and season tickets because we love the Town
11

Pencilpete added 20:50 - Aug 8
This salary cap suits ME down to the ground. He can dry up investment completely and hide behind the salary cap when in reality we should be going all out this year to get promoted so it doesn't affect us anymore
7

EatonBlue added 22:11 - Aug 8
The EFL are clueless. Can we just leave the EFL and join the Dutch League?
0

VILJOEN67 added 23:03 - Aug 8
This is an absolute disaster for Ipswich Town as it is the exact opposite for clubs in the premier league where the free market applies. Generating extra revenue gives you no advantage now in league 1&2. We will be unable to attract quality players because of the low wages. Good players are more likely to leave because of the poor wages. Its in effect Football socialism. That would be fine if a salary cap was introduced in the Championship and premier league. The owners of clubs with scant resources of course will welcome this. The only good thing about this is that it will encourage clubs to develop their own talent. This comes on top of the Premier league trying to cartel the system to attract and retain investors. They proposed Premier league 1 and Premier league 2 with no relegation from it a few years back. Because it was so unpopular and basically killed the dream for teams lower down the league they embarked on a system of higher parachute payments to give those investors a better chance of getting their teams back into the premier league. We suffered greatly from this policy when we were in the Championship. Added to this we missed out on catefgory one Academy status by a fraction of a point despite producing a number of players for England in the younger age groups. In other words if you are not in the premier league forget Cat 1 .Then the rules change to allow Premier league clubs to lift your best academy players at ever younger ages. The system is rigged massively in favour of the premier league. You cant blame the chairmen of these clubs lower down the food chain for wanting to reduce their wage bill because the system dosen't allow for any other option. For us we are again on the wrong side of the tracks as when we were relegated from the premier league when parachute payments didn't give you an adequate cushion. Now we are diadvantaged disproportionately yet again.* Frustrated of Wickham Market .
11

MurcianITCC added 08:23 - Aug 9
I guess it's imperative we gain promotion this season then? Either that or hope that we, as a "big" club, get invited to join EPL 3 or Championship 2 in the inevitable Football league restructuring.
The EFL in this format must be over .
0


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