Nathan Jones says the Coronvirus pandemic has provided a chance for football to change its financial position – but that any change would need to be gradual.
The suspension of football for three months from March laid bare the perilous situations many Football League clubs are in, with clubs, including Luton needing to furlough staff and negotiate wages deferrals from players.
EFL bosses have mooted a potential salary cap of between £15million and £20m in the Championship and much smaller ceilings in the bottom two divisions.
But the Professional Footballlers’ Association has warned that such a move would be ‘unlawful’ saying of contracts that extend beyond this season must remain the same and cannot be changed without the players’ consent.
Asked if the Covid-19 pandemic could change football, Jones said: “I think it changes how the world functions. It will definitely have an impact on football. It will be a negative financial impact, that’s for sure, but whether it’ll be better in the long run for the game, let’s see.
“There’s a real opportunity to change now, if the authorities want to take it. That has to be a gradual change because you can’t just say, ‘right, we’re going to have a salary cap now’, because people are already committed to the following season and, sometimes, above the salary cap.
“There needs to be a change, there needs to be a rejig but that has to be, one, well-thought out. Two, workable, structured, and then implemented at the right time.”
The Football Association this week released the fees that clubs in the top four divisions in England have forked out to agents between February 2019 and January this year.
Luton spent the least of all the current Championship clubs, with just £298,140 shelled out to agents, compared to Jones’ former club Stoke City, who led the way, having spent £5,683,904.
Asked if that is one example that highlights how prudently, Luton Town Football Club is run, the manager said: “The bigger the transfer, the bigger the player, the more agents’ fees you pay. I didn’t look (at everyone’s). I looked at our own.
“We have to pay agents, but I think we have a good relationship. We’re quite thrifty, or shrewd in our business and we always have been, though I can’t say for last summer because I wasn’t the manager here.
“But we’ve felt we’ve always got value for money and, as a football club, our ins, in terms of finance, far outweigh our outs, so we’ve been in a good place in recent years.
“Moving forward, everything will change. Manager’s fees will change, everything will change, so I imagine this window will be the least amount that agents earn because the finance doesn’t circulate now because of the impact of the pandemic.”
If a cap of some sort is not introduced in our football, especially Championship, leagues 1 and 2 this will mean the end to football as we know it. Yes a gradual introduction, but eventually removing this rediculous amount that my club Luton can be in debt by, £39 million, an unaffordable amount. Football authorities come to your séances.