Football FD writes off wage cap

The most senior finance professional in the world’s richest football league has told Accountancy Age that a cap on footballers’ wages is a ‘complete non-starter’.

His comments were made just days before Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand became the highest-paid player in the Premiership on more than £100,000 a week.

Javed Khan, director of finance at the Premier League, said that, despite Premiership wages reaching close to £1bn in the 2003/04 season, a cap on wages was a ‘complete non-starter because the world has always overpaid its artists because of the entertainment they provide’.

However, Khan warned that clubs should be wary of excessive spending. According to Deloitte, the English Premiership has the highest wage bill in European football at 1.2bn euros (£832m).

‘Ultimately there is no getting away from the fact you are a business and you have to survive. A lot of commentators talk about clubs paying 60% to 70% of their turnover in wages, but not all clubs are and this ratio is slowly coming down.’