Freebie Friday: Should there be more transparency around budgets and wages?

Why should a transfer fee be undisclosed?

Welcome to the Friday Freebie and for those of you new to www.footballwriting.co.uk this is the free piece coming at you every week so please share it around.

This week I’m going to look at club wage budgets, player wages and transfer fees and ask why is there so much secrecy around the figures compared to some other sports?

Some of those three things I mentioned there cause plenty of controversy, plenty of debate and plenty of people claiming to know the ins and outs of all at whatever level they watch the game.

It’s hard to distinguish between the rumour and the fact, namely so because plenty is left ‘undisclosed’ when it comes to fees, wages aren’t hugely reported and budgets are seemingly hidden behind closed doors of the clubs and league offices, but for what reason?

I personally don’t see why all of it is not out in the open, all I can see from keeping it a closed shop is there is something to hide on all three counts. We know Premier League wages are colossal and out of touch with the modern watching person, we know they are obscene and we know how big the turnover is of these clubs too, so pretty much numbers wouldn’t surprise us.

We also know clubs in the Championship are allowed to ‘lose’ so many millions per year before it’s deemed to be breaking Financial Fair Play rules (FFP), but since when is it good practise as a business to have that kind of loss? It’s not is it, nor does it make any club financially viable.

Many will point recently to the years of less income yet still a similar set of bills to pay but let’s not kid ourselves it’s been going on far longer than that. And football seems to be ok with that, but are you and I?

Ask a Scunthorpe, Oldham, Southend, Bury or Macclesfield fan, clubs that have sailed very close to the wind and in the latter cases disappeared completely and reborn levels down due to spending well outside their means.

Those and a host of other reasons are why an independent regulator is being brought into the game as football clearly can’t control itself.

A club budget for wages might seem extreme for us to know at higher levels but at non-league levels I don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t be made public, not for the want of being nosey but let’s see whose spending their money wisely, who has more to spend than others, after all it’s a competition and if you’ve a fantastic way to increase a playing budget so be it, and if you’re on the lower end but doing far better than maybe you should why isn’t it shared? Then there would be no debate who has a few quid more or not because everyone will know for sure!

We see what wages the top stars are on, lower down we guess unless you happen to have an inside track with clubs or people and are able to understand a bit more.

Some might say it’s quite sensitive information, would you want your payslip becoming common knowledge to all? But football doesn’t conform to a lot the real world does, surely it shouldn’t make any difference to know how wages and bonuses look, unless there’s something to hide once again.

The ‘undisclosed’ transfer fee. Now that screams ‘We don’t want to tell you because it’s a little hush hush and not quite above the table.’ It might well be nothing but again why not declare it? Embarrassed at the fee you needed to pay or worried you think someone else will see it as you paid over the odds?

If there’s no issue with it then, just say it! It doesn’t matter what the value is to me, but transparency is all too rare in football. I know if transfer fees hit silly levels at clubs shouldn’t supporters have the right to question it? After all you are a custodian of their club passing through, the club itself remains long after you do.

And the final thing that seems a bit of an enigma is the length of a player’s contract. You aren’t protecting anything by not disclosing how long said player is tied to your club, other clubs I’m sure can get the information easily enough and they’re the one most likely to be interested in playing staff, supporters would no doubt be happy to understand how much longer they’ve got to stomach the under-performing striker or the hapless defender.

Now some of these points might not mean much to any of you or things you really don’t care about, there might be other different things you feel should be open and honest, feel free to share them in the comments or on social media.

I follow the NFL very closely and all the things you see above are open and honest within their competition, granted we’re not on the same wage level as those players but everyone knows where everyone stands.

Football is far from a level playing field any more but I for one would love to know exactly how wide the gap is, then maybe those overperforming at times will get the correct recognition and others questions to be asked over the lack of position given their capital backing.