Level playing field ?

[fileywhite]

Des Kelly in the mail on saturday
Revealed: £5m cost of Cardiff loan star state... Cash deal: Craig Bellamy
Cardiff City are all fur coat and no knickers. They look expensive, they look the part, but it is all front.

Last week I joined the voices questioning why Manchester City's lavish funding of the Craig Bellamy deal is allowed.

Since then, I've gleaned precise figures on Cardiff 's hugely subsidised wage bill and the telephone numbers should alarm every Championship manager, chairman and supporter.

Cardiff's star man, Craig Bellamy, receives £85,000 a week. Yet Cardiff pay just £21,000 of this, with £64,000 being transferred to the Welsh club from City. Another of Cardiff's loan players, Seyi Olofinjana, is paid £27,000 per week, but only £11,000 of that is from the Welsh club's coffers.

The £16,000 shortfall in the Nigerian international's wage comes from Hull City. Jason Koumas receives £29,000 per week. Cardiff pay just £10,000, the remaining £19,000 is wired from Dave Whelan's Wigan Athletic. And Cardiff have just added Wolves striker Andy Keogh to their array of loan sharks. The player earns £22,000 a week and yet Cardiff pay £10,000 of this. Wolverhampton Wanderers cough up the other £12,000.

This means that Cardiff's bid for promotion to the Premier League is being subsidised by other clubs to the tune of somewhere in the region of £5 million.

This is more than the entire wage bill for a club like Scunthorpe, who are supposedly competing in the same division.

No wonder Doncaster Rovers chairman John Ryan says he feels 'let down' and complains that 'the integrity of the competition is undermined'. Cardiff are doing what they are allowed to do; they are ruthlessly exploiting the loan system.
But the Football League cannot sit idly by and pretend this is in any way fair. If the Welsh club make it to the Premier League, it will be a sleight of hand comparable to West Ham's infamous escape from relegation with a goal from Carlos Tevez, a player they infamously didn't own.

At Cardiff, half the team is owned by other clubs. If they go up, there will be an almighty street parade in the Welsh city. I just wonder whether they will take a detour via Manchester, Hull, Wigan and Wolverhampton too?

[kev_g]

Spot on there mate. I've had my rants about this. I strongly believe the FL will want them in the PL because they're welsh, and if any one wants to take them on you'll be taking on the whole of wales bar swansea. I personally think it will be a total disgrace if they win promotion this season (which i think they will, it just HAS TO HAPPEN)

Imagine if Leeds or a small club like Donny or Scunny where run like this? They would be punished to the full.

Football league statement; 'Screw the clubs that are being run properly, and screw their fans. We want cardiff up, and under enough pressure we will fine them £100. That should do the trick.' :shoot: :shoot: :shoot:

[Silky]

Personally i couldnt care less.

It's probably just a result of this 25man squad thing, and perhaps Dave Jones is just ahead of the game? I still think it's a risk, selling on decent players that they own, and replacing them with expensive loan players, who will be gone again at the end of the season. Even if theyre only paying part of the wage, if that part is £10k, it's still alot.

If you take away those loans, their squad is thread-bare, and i think they feel the only way they can avoid the club going backrupt is to throw EVERYTHING at promotion this year, send all these big money players home at the end of it, take the cash on offer from the premier league, and spend it on debt when theyre back in the championship.

Are clubs like Doncaster supposed to be jelous of the position Cardiff are in? pfft..

Too much emphasis is put on the quality of your playing staff, and not enough on the ability of your manager to get the best out of what he's got. Even Mourinho.. sure he's always had good players at his disposal, but no one else could win what he won at Porto, Chelsea, and Inter... Alex Ferguson is the prime example... there arnt too many that could win the league with the likes of Fletcher, Carrick, Brown, O'Shea, Neville as the guts of their squad...

[MikeLUFC7]

To be honest I am sick and tired of hearing fans, regardless of who they support, complaining about this. The loan system allows teams to take players from other clubs and agree the percentage of the wage that they will pay. It is a system that allows clubs to get players that they might not otherwise be able to afford, and it is also a system that allows players to play football and help other teams. To me there is nothing wrong with the loan system, it might be slightly unfair but that has always been the case with football.

Back in the early days, clubs like Burnley, Preston and Blackburn got the best player's in the country by getting them cushy jobs that allowed them to get off work and play football for them. Was that fair for clubs who couldn't get cushy jobs for their player's? Probably not. But football has never been fair, nor has it really ever had a level playing field. There has always been certain clubs who can afford to pay more than others. In the 90s Man Utd could pay more than anyone else, in the 00s Man Utd and Chelsea could pay more than anyone else, and now Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea can spend more money than anyone else. Sure, teams like Spurs or Everton have a good year here and there, but it is unlikely in the long term that they will be able to compete. So unless financial constraints are put in place, there will never be a level playing field. Football has always been about money and those who can best look after themselves and use the system in place to their advantage.

For me, I don't see Cardiff "exploiting" the loan system, all I see is a team making use of the loan system that is in place. It might be slightly immoral that they can get players on such good deals that teams like Scunthrope can't, and that the money they are not paying is in excess of Scunthrope's wage bill. But that is football whether we like it or not. And unfortunately, we are one of those teams who have exploited the system in the past. Perhaps the only way to stop this is to make clubs pay a loan player's wage in full, then that might make things more "fair". But even if teams had to pay a loan player's wages in full, that would still leave certain teams capable of signing players that others simply can only dream of signing.

What I am trying to say here is that perhaps morally this is wrong and does not allow for much competition for the smaller clubs. But football has always been dominated by an elite, by the big clubs, and the sport probably always will.

[revieboy]

Yeah I agree, although I understand it is frustrating to see a club like Cardiff who are in debt, almost being 'bailed' out. The loan system is something we have exploited in the past and to our recent advantage, although on a lesser scale. Last season we had Doyle with us from Coventry and now we have Watt from Arsenal for the season.

It is still incredible to see the amount of money they are not paying, BUT they are still paying considerable wages for a second tier side who are in financial trouble.

Football would be boring if there was a completely level playing field. In a way the bigger clubs have earned the right over a period of years to take advantage of their pedigree. I am sure we are able to attract players on this basis.

The question is, are Cardiff a big club? They haven't won squat! Their last major trophy being the FA Cup in 1927.

[Drs.Dad]

I feel that the question here isn't so much Cardiff exploiting the loan system, but that they are being allowed to make expensive moves in the loan market while owing huge amounts of money to Motherwell and the Taxman. The FA agreed the Bellamy loan against all advice, and we all know the FA has axes to grind and plans to bring to fruition, who's to say that they do or don't want Cardiff in the Prem...... let's get there too and wipe the smug smirks off their trough shaped faces.