‘Salary cap may deny players of real value’
PUTRAJAYA: A wage cap on players in the Malaysia League (M-League) may deny quality local football players of their market price.
Youth and Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin said if a local player had reached top of market price level, the application of salary ceiling limit would deny the player of his real worth.
“If local players have been given high offers, why must we deny the market force, that is the real value.
“Apart from that, salary ceiling limit will also result in M-League teams not being able to own high quality imported players.
“Nonetheless under the present situation (with no salary limit), only a few teams could acquire the services of high quality players,” he told reporters at Menara Kementerian Belia dan Sukan ( KBS) here.
Khairy however did not state his stand on the proposal to limit the salary ceiling of M- League players as the decision had to take into consideration detailed discussions with the Football Association of Malaysia ( FAM), state associations and football clubs as well as players.
He believed after the election of the new FAM leadership this year, all issues on player’s salary would be discussed in greater details to resolve the matter.
“There are leagues which practise salary cap and there are leagues which do not.
“Some feel a developing league like Malaysia needs to have wage ceiling to assist teams which do not have strong financial backing.
“On the other hand, if there is no wage ceiling, football in the country will not progress,” he said.
Local media reported former Asian Football Confederation (AFC) secretary- general Datuk Peter Velappan as calling on FAM to quickly introduce a limit on wage ceiling for M- League players.
Velappan said on Thursday the move was crucial to prevent teams being mired by financial crisis in their preparations for the new season as seen in some teams including Kelantan and Selangor. — Bernama