Is The New Premier League Wage Cap Unbalanced?

Many fans of the Barclays Premier League will have heard of the new financial fair play rule regarding wages. From this season onwards, teams above £52m in wages can only increase that figure up by £4m per year. Teams with less, can only increase their wages up to £52m, but with these new rules, will it create a larger gulp in class between the teams at the top and the teams at the bottom.

With this new law being enforced into the Premier League, teams under the wages of £52m would have to wait 12 years to get £100m wages, which the top four clubs have already passed. This can give the teams in the top 4 a large advantage. In the modern game, money is a major part in success, and with the smaller teams not being able to have as large of a wage budget, the top clubs will be getting better and better whilst smaller clubs will always be behind.

It has been proven that money is a major part of English football, as 4 out of the 5 teams who have spent over £100m in wages are in the top 4 of the Premier League. These teams are Chelsea, Man City, Man United and Arsenal. This shows that to catch up to the teams at the top, a large amount of money would have to be spent, however with the new wage cap, this is not possible.

This is the first season in which the wage cap has been introduced, but after a few more seasons, the gulp in class may be substantially larger. This may result in a new rule or completely taking out financial fair play as already in this transfer window, it has proven to be unbalanced as the big clubs are still buying and some clubs, such as West Ham aren’t allowed to buy until they sell.