Shropshire Star

EFL salary cap vote is delayed until August

The vote to introduce a salary cap in Leagues One and Two has been delayed by another week, it is understood.

Published

The EFL board were scheduled to stage a vote on the introductions of the wage caps next Wednesday, July 29 but, not for the first time, this has been put back.

It will now go ahead on Thursday, August 6.

Shrewsbury Town are behind the introduction of a flat wage cap in the third tier and will vote that way next month.

The club believe that a £2.5million cap will make League One a more level playing field and hope it will stop rivals from spending above their means, particularly in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

There has been opposition to its introduction from big-spending League One outfits Sunderland and Portsmouth.

The salary cap for League Two clubs is proposed at £1.5m.

Any existing contracts – and those signed before the August 6 vote – are classed as a divisional average, which the Shropshire Star has learned is £1,730 per-week.

The original proposals were for the divisional average to stand on contracts signed before June 30, but this has been extended to deals registered before August 6, meaning clubs have been able to offer lucrative deals in the knowledge they will count as the divisional average.

Meanwhile, Town have confirmed the reshuffling of their groundcare team for both Montgomery Waters Meadow and Sundorne Castle training ground.

Shrewsbury company Agrovista UK last year purchased Maxwell Amenity – who had been looking after Town's pitches for the last five years.

But Agrovista have decided against renewing their contract with the club.

Shrewsbury have moved to assemble an in-house team, led by new head groundsman John Silvester, who joins from Huddersfield Town having previously worked at Lilleshall National Sports Centre.

He is assisted by Andy Austin, who also worked at Lilleshall, and former AFC Telford United groundsman George Conway.