Brian Caldwell: Salary cap could aid Shrewsbury
Chief executive Brian Caldwell believes a salary cap to help football recover from the impact of coronavirus would benefit Shrewsbury Town – but says the idea has not been formally discussed.
Reports – which originated from Andy Pilley, chairman of Shrewsbury’s League One rivals Fleetwood – surfaced stating that salary caps to ease financial burdens are being considered by the lower leagues.
Another solution to help the sport recover post-virus was the possible regionalisation of Leagues One and Two.
The old Third Division was split into north and south until 1958, but Caldwell – who has represented Town on EFL board conference calls – said it was another notion that had not been discussed.
Town are one of the most sustainably-run clubs in the Football League and while Caldwell admitted a cap would help the Montgomery Waters Meadow club, it would be ‘difficult’ for wide-ranging clubs to agree.
“This hasn’t been discussed formally, I know a few clubs have suggested it needs looked at but it’s not easy,” said Caldwell.
“If you take League One and the bigger clubs like Sunderland, Ipswich and Portsmouth and compare them to the smaller ones like Accrington with smaller budgets there is going to be a real difficulty getting an agreement from varying levels of clubs.
“From our point of view as we run the club sustainably, it could benefit Shrewsbury, bringing the rest of the clubs’ wage budgets to similar to our levels.”
Meanwhile, Caldwell admitted he could not see significant benefits to Shrewsbury and its fans by installing a north-south divide to League One. He said: “It wouldn’t make a massive difference, probably around an average of 40 miles per game.”
