This past weekend saw technical director of Asian football Andy Roxburgh criticize the A-League for continuing with a salary cap, going on further to state that it is the main reason why Australian clubs have more often than not failed in continental competition.
With the sole exceptions of Western Sydney’s Asian Champions League win in 2014 and Adelaide United’s run to the final in 2008, Australia’s record in the tournament is nothing spectacular. Out of the 21 times an A-League club has made it to the ACL group stage, only six times has a club progressed out of the group stage. There could be a number of reasons for this average showing in continental competition, one could suggest that Australia’s geographical location in Asia is an issue as it results in long haul flights just to play an away game. However, it is starting to become increasingly clear that the big issue Australian clubs will be facing in Asia is the advent of large spending opposition.
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This past transfer window saw the Chinese Super League make headlines around the world for the significant amount of money spent by clubs, with players like Jackson Martinez and Alex Teixeira leading an exciting new era for Chinese football. Not only did the total spending during the transfer window pass $390 million dollars – a fair amount more than the $336 million spent in the recent English Premier League transfer window – but it also saw many Chinese clubs destroy their former transfer records to bring in new talent.
An excellent case in point is the club Jiangsu Suning. Before the 2015-16 Chinese Super League season started, Jiangsu’s record transfer was a mere $9.75 million for former Getafe player Sammir, who came in during the 2014-15 season. However, the club showed its intentions when they signed Chelsea’s Ramires for a staggering $40.9 million, only for the club to then break that record a few days later when they signed Shakhtar’s Alex Teixeira for $74.1 million. This huge increase in spending has now seen Jiangsu eclipse the spending of many Premier League clubs, most notably Everton and Stoke, who’s largest transfers are Romelu Lukaku ($51.6 million) and Giannelli Imbula ($35.3 million) respectively.
However, one can argue that merely spending a lot of money will not necessarily guarantee these clubs continental success, but it is a massive wake-up call for all of Asia and especially the A-League. Australia is one of only a handful of countries that operates their league underneath a salary cap, and while the cap does appear to make the league significantly more stable and competitive – although the recent fortunes of clubs like the Central Coast Mariners seem to argue against that point – it does have the side effect of leaving the club behind in Asian competition.
Roxburgh, who worked at New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer before taking his current role as AFC Technical Director, agreed that there is some value in the salary cap creating stability, but he also noted that “You’ll never have a Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea-type club here, it wouldn’t work in a salary cap context” and for the most part, he is correct. Clubs like Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC – while popular in the country – will never reach the same popularity as clubs like Chelsea or Manchester United underneath a salary cap system.
The cap heavily restricts who clubs can bring to our shores in a purely financial sense. With this still in place, Australian teams will be left behind on the continental stage as top Asian talent will find themselves heading to clubs that can pay higher wages thanks to the lack of a salary cap. However, this is not to say that the salary cap is a blight on the league that needs to be immediately scrapped. The implementation of a salary cap allows for a higher focus on finding home grown talent, something which will only benefit Australia’s standing in world football and the fortunes of the national team. This also allows for smaller clubs to survive in the league as they do not have to continue spending money they do not have chasing larger clubs in an attempt to stay competitive.
With a new Television deal on the horizon and a growing desire to see success on a continental level, the A-League has a tough decision to make in the near future. If Asian countries like China continue to spend big on players, we could see a seismic shift in how Australia is perceived in Asian football, going from consistent underperformers to overachieving minnows – Western Sydney’s ACL win in 2014 cannot be discounted and there is no reason as to why another Australian club cannot win it again, it will now just become significantly harder – but should the A-League go down the path of removing the salary cap in order to keep up with the rest of Asia, then domestic clubs could quickly find themselves in trouble financially.
It is a problem with no easy answer, and one the FFA has to consider sooner rather than later. When Australia is in the same confederation as a second tier club (Beijing Renhe, again in China) spending $7.8 million on former West Ham player Nikica Jelavic, we simply cannot cover our ears and close our eyes. At the risk of being left behind by the bigger Asian countries, Australia needs to do something. It just needs to be careful as to what that something is, as the wrong move could kill off the domestic league altogether.
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