ISL salary cap might be deterrent to draw top players

Level playing field for teams but franchisee owners claim limit ties their hands

The decision to put a salary cap on the franchisees for the 2015 season could prove a deterrent in drawing top talents for the Indian Super League teams.

While this will provide a level playing field for the franchisees, some team owners say that it has tied their hands.

“The salary cap has stonewalled any chances for the franchisees to sign any top talent, now even if someone has the capability and will to sign a top player, he can't as this will violate the salary cap,” said a franchisee owner who did not wish to be named.

The decision to put a salary cap of Rs 20 crore was decided by Football Sports Development Ltd (FSDL) Governing Council here on Monday. The FSDL is the controlling body of ISL jointly promoted by IMG-Reliance and Star India; it met here to review player guidelines for ISL 2015.

RED CARD

• The decision to put a salary cap of Rs 20 crore was by Football Sports Development Ltd (FSDL) Governing Council on Monday
• The FSDL is the controlling body of ISL, promoted by IMG-Reliance and Star India

The FFSDL-GC consists of representatives from all eight ISL teams. A look at the list of last year's international signings show that franchisees spent to the tune of Rs 10 crore to sign top international stars who are in the last stages of their career. Delhi Dynamos, for example, spent around Rs 11 crore to sign Alessandro Del Piero, a World Cup winner with Italy in 2006. Mumbai City FC had to shell out around Rs 5.5 crore for French star Nicolas Anelka. While some franchisees wanted to sign players from mid level European clubs, they have to be shelved now. Analysts feel that ideally the organisers should have fixed a soft salary cap where the franchisees pay a penalty if they breach the fixed cap. “A soft salary cap would have let the deep pocket franchisees to spend more and draw talents if they want to, in that way it would have still proved to be a deterrent and provide a level playing field,” said Desh Gaurav Sekhri, the sports counsel and practice coordinator at J Sagar Associates. Other franchisee owners though welcomed the move and said a cap of Rs 20 crore is sufficient. “The cap is higher by at least 10 per cent from the expense of last year. It is a progressive move and will bring fiscal discipline to the league,” said Utsav Parekh, co-owner of Atletico De Kolkata.