Should the EFL Have a Salary Cap? Discussion Blog

Should the EFL Have a Salary Cap? Discussion Blog

In a first-of-its-kind article for Football Park, writers Harry and Chris discuss whether the EFL should impose the £4.7 million per year salary cap put forward by a host of League One teams, including Reading and Peterborough. Would it be healthy for the EFL, or would it see the league take a downturn in overall quality?

The EFL is to oppose proposals from League One clubs to introduce a £4.7m salary cap and a luxury tax for clubs that overspend.

Eighteen League One clubs wrote to the EFL, led by Peterborough and Reading.

[@MattHughesMedia] #readingfc pic.twitter.com/dedaNVyrTc

— RFC Latest (@RFCLatest) November 15, 2025

Chris: “My perspective on it is that there shouldn’t be a salary cap.” That’s what I said when this was brought up in the office today.

I can see why these League One teams want to introduce one, but at the end of the day, football is a business like any other. In my opinion, you get what you pay for. In the modern football world, owners who splash money into their club tend to do better than owners less willing to develop their charge.

As a result, an owner spending £100 million a year on their club deserves more success than an owner spending £10 million a year. It’s simple math, and although some don’t like the dominance of the clubs with money in the top flight, it must be said that other stories, such as Tom Brady’s ownership of Birmingham or the Hollywood ownership of Wrexham, show that in the lower tiers, the lack of a salary cap can completely turn a club around.

Five years ago Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's takeover of Wrexham started an adventure which has lead the club from non-league to the Championship ⚽️#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/aACxh11MR2

— BBC Sport Wales (@BBCSportWales) November 16, 2025

Investment and commitment to a club should, at the end of the day, be rewarded, whether this be through silverware, promotion, or even something as simple as an improved position.

Harry: Very true, Chris; I can’t argue with a lot there. Quite frankly, I am also against the salary cap, but allow me to play devil's advocate here.

I can certainly see why these League One teams want to introduce one - they want a level playing field, one which could potentially allow them to move up the divisions quicker, and failing that, to at least be more competitive.

Should all clubs be given a salary cap, you will seldom find a club operating below that limit. This means that every side will have very similar levels in terms of quality, and results are more likely to be unpredictable, coming down to who performed better on the day. It’s certainly an attractive prospect, especially when you consider that you’ll see some vastly different clubs competing at the top than what you would be used to.

Chris: I can certainly understand the perspective that a salary cap makes it a fairer game for everyone. New clubs doing well is always an exciting prospect, and it is something we want to see regardless of whether there is a salary cap in place or not.

However, it’s one thing to introduce something like this into the EFL. However, if the EFL does end up implementing it, then the Premier League also to end up doing something similar to make the top four divisions of English football a level playing field.

Now, look at the Premier League - that would never, ever happen. There is simply too much money flying around in the top flight between owners too committed to the cause to even lend a thought to the idea of a salary cap. As well as being wildly unrealistic, it would also be completely unsustainable.

Look at Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, and Man United - they are always going to spend more money than Burnley. If this is the case in the top flight, why should it be different in the Championship and below? You’ve got clubs like Birmingham, Wrexham, and Derby, and they’re always going to spend more money than Oxford, for example.

The Professional Footballers’ Association have said they will take legal action against the Premier League if clubs vote for an effective salary cap next week.

Sky Sports chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol discusses the potential 'showdown' between players and clubs. pic.twitter.com/9FJj5jCdBM

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) November 13, 2025

Harry: Right you are, Chris; I can’t argue with much there. Even if a salary cap was introduced, some clubs would still fail to scrape the funds together to reach the upper limit of that cap, meaning that despite the new measures put in place, they would still be struggling to equal other teams in their quality.

However, this does not remove from the fact that if a salary cap were introduced, it would be massively beneficial for smaller clubs. Suddenly able to compete with a team that slapped them 6-0 last season, the less historically successful clubs would have a newfound confidence and belief that they too could taste success.

The problem indeed is implementing this in the Premier League. If a salary cap is introduced, then Man City and Chelsea would no longer be able to spend eye-watering sums of money in the transfer window in order to acquire the best talent. The league would go down in terms of quality as a result of this, and particularly the more money-motivated players would head to countries with no cap, such as the Saudi Pro League.

Chris: This Premier League is a bit of a bad example for my point, but in previous years, the gap between promoted teams and existing Premier League sides has been enormous. Having six out of six promoted sides taste relegation the season after was not healthy for the game.

Should a salary cap be introduced in the EFL and not the Premier League, then the gap between the top flight and the rest of England's football pyramid would only grow wider, making it almost impossible for promoted Championship sides to survive.

Sunderland’s remarkable start to the campaign has also underlined my point that money talks, and not just money by itself - there is spending money, and then there is knowing where to spend money. In the last couple of years, we have had teams splash hundreds of millions and still look like a team unaccustomed to Premier League football.

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WE'VE GOT, GRANIT XHAKA. pic.twitter.com/sIBqBSkvHg

— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) November 8, 2025

Sunderland, and to a lesser extent Leeds and Burnley, have shown that you get what you pay for, thus proving that the failure of previous clubs to stay up was at least not all down to gap between the divisions but at least partially on the clubs for not being savvy enough with their approach.

Harry: One final point here Chris - of course, a salary cap does have the potential to create a bigger gap between the Premier League and the rest of the EFL.

However, in other ways, it could be a masterstroke. Any side in the Championship would, of course, have to abide by the new ruling, spending a maximum of £4.7 million a year on wages. However, for whichever teams managed to earn promotion to the Premier League, the salary cap would theoretically drop away.

This would give them freedom to invest heavily in their squad without needing to worry about an upper limit on salary expenditure. Later down the line, this could become a problem if they are relegated back to the Championship - the squad would face wholesale changes as the club looked to meet the salary cap once again.

But purely in terms of the gap between the Premier League and Championship, I don’t think it would be affected too much. Hopefully, we never have to find out - the system we use now has been perfectly fine for decades upon decades, and though belief has faded in recent years after the consistently poor performance from promoted sides, Sunderland are leading the argument that actually, the system works.