New Year promises to bring changes to the football championship of Belarus.
One of the country's most popular sports resources, Tribuna.com, reported that the Belarusian Football Federation (ABFF) has set its sights on introducing a salary ceiling for players and coaches in 2021.
According to the portal, back in December, the heads of the leading clubs of the Major League were invited to the House of Football for a conversation, where they received information about the imminent reform of the financial system.
The chairman of the ABFF Vladimir Bazanov did not hide such intentions, who noted in an interview with the national channel
“Capital Television”: “If we compare by European standards, then our salaries are small, although if we compare in general, of course, there are overstated salaries.
It is necessary to have some kind of salary ceiling.
We will work with the clubs, we will talk about this issue, because most of the clubs want to have a salary ceiling ”.
How wide is the spread in fees within the Major League can be understood by comparing the capabilities of leading clubs with outsiders.
According to a November study by the Tribuna.com portal, the maximum remuneration of a football player as part of the national champion Shakhtar Salihorsk was $ 25,000 per month.
Similar sums were received by the key players of Brest Dynamo, the winner of gold medals-2019.
BATE Borisov, who finished second in the fall, paid the leaders $ 15,000 each. And Dinamo Minsk (perhaps one of the most financially stable clubs in Belarus today) was ready to pay their tops within $ 10,000.
At the opposite pole in 2020 were the "Smolevichi", which went bankrupt during the season - the wages of system-forming athletes, as the newspaper noted, halved from $ 1.2 thousand.
Having found itself in a similar situation, Gorodeya could offer the leaders $ 1,000.
The key performers of the Bobruisk Belshina, Slavia from Mozyr, and the Slutsk football club lived on a salary of $ 1,000-1,500.
According to Tribuna.com, the new ABFF regulation "On Fixed Monthly Wages" states that from 2021 a Major League footballer can count on a maximum remuneration of just over $ 5.8 thousand.
These salaries are due to representatives of the national team, who have been actively recruited over the past two years, and three legionnaires.
The head coach's salary is limited to $ 3.1 thousand. The total salary fund per month is limited to $ 58 thousand.
In support of the information, the publication published scans of certain documents, which indicate the expected changes.
In addition, bonuses, which are traditional for most contracts in the football world, have been cut.
For winning the championship, a team cannot receive more than $ 11.7 thousand.
Each of the overcome rounds of the Cup is limited to $ 7.8 thousand, and the success in the European Cup match is "estimated" at $ 23.3 thousand per team.
Note that the idea of a salary cap itself is not new - both in sports in general and in football in particular.
The same Belarus has been limiting earnings in hockey for a dozen years, making adjustments to the limits before each new season and fining those who do not fit into them.
While outside the republic, the model of limiting payments is practiced by the football MLS, and it is also seriously discussed in Germany and Kazakhstan.
However, restrictions promulgated by Tribuna.com run the risk of zero or near-zero performance.
After all, for the majority of participants in the Major League, the salary ceiling is an unattainable thing.
Even during the past season, the head coaches of most of the clubs in the middle or at the back of the table talked about funding problems.
Some, like Isloch, were able to survive only by selling top players.
Others, like “Minsk”, made it to the end of the year, but then they set out to “poke” significantly.
Whereas the winner of the First League, Sputnik from Rechitsa, due to a lack of funds, is close to disbanding instead of performing at a higher level.
In other words, finding five thousand dollars for the salary of a single performer for many teams in the elite division will be an unaffordable luxury.
As well as to form a fee fund per month, close to the mark of $ 60 thousand. Dollars.
If the information of the publication is correct, the desire of ABFF is mainly aimed at tempering the appetites of the leading clubs.
The aspiration itself is ambiguous, because on the European arena, the representatives of Belarus have been unable to get into the group stages of European competitions for several years now.
But it is this indicator that most often measures the success of the clubs and the budget that the leaders have at their disposal - payments from UEFA allow you to create a good margin of financial strength for several years ahead.
If you do not recruit a competitive roster, do not invite high-quality legionnaires, there is a high probability of leaving the continental rally long before the group stage.
This, by the way, happened in 2020.
All Belarusian teams - with the exception of Dynamo Brest - dropped out of international tournaments following the results of the first round of their performances.
Another point is the reservations that may appear in the second edition of the document reported by the Tribuna.com portal.
Already, teams are allowed to pay players in excess of the limit with funds received from UEFA and ticket sales.
In theory, the pandemic and the associated restrictions make it difficult for clubs to attract investment.
However, it is enough to imagine a team announcing a match without spectators and then releasing tickets for virtual fans on sale - and the problem is solved by itself.
It is not difficult to fill the stands with cardboard mannequins.
Then, all that remains is to calculate the average cost of one seat for 15 home games in a season in order to fully recoup even the most expensive footballer contracts.
The final cost of the ticket will obviously be challenging (especially against the background of its average price in Belarus of $ 1.5 thousand), but legally there are no barriers to this.
Moreover, Brest Dynamo have already tried to move in this direction.
Our fans from all over the world seem to be happy!
Thanks for your support, guys!
😉⚪️🔵 pic.twitter.com/wX4dCLDtUH
- FC Dynamo Brest (@dynamobrest) April 8, 2020
Another point by which clubs are able to bypass the limit is the position on advertising contracts, which is lobbied by team leaders.
It is proposed to withdraw income from cooperation with sponsors in the field of promoting the team sponsor and personally the players.
And in this case, any limits will completely lose their meaning - the cash flow in the same volume will be legalized through personal transactions.
According to the esoligorsk.by portal, Belaruskali, which supports Shakhtar, in 2019 decided to allocate about $ 500,000 to the club for advertising services.
In general, the amount of transfers since the beginning of the year was approaching a million.
An alternative option is to adapt the European experience.
Increasingly, leading players are registering their name to protect it from commercial use.
In the case of appearing on posters, in computer games or advertising, royalty is required.
For example, Oliver Kann was one of the first to do this, which is why even in the world famous Football Manager simulator he was registered as Jens Mustermann throughout his career.
By doing the same, the leading players of BATE, Shakhtar or Dinamo Minsk will easily and legally get the opportunity to earn more than the limit.
It will be enough for the clubs to release one commercial video with their participation to justify the deal.
Teams can also bypass the ban with the help of fans.
"Donates" privately from, for example, foreign fans or their "activity" in purchasing merchandise are not included in the list of income limited by the limit.
At the same time, attention from abroad is not something unnatural for football Belarus: at the height of the first wave of the pandemic, the Higher League remained the only tournament in Europe that continued to be active.
They even learned about the local championship in Australia, where a fan club "Isloch" appeared - a team that later became a favorite for Ivan Urgant.
Accordingly, there will be no doubts about the solvency of "private" club patrons.
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Publication from Ivan Urgant (@urgantcom)
The Tribuna.com information caused a mixed reaction in the world of Belarusian football.
So, Valery Isaev, agent of CSKA forward Ilya Shkurin and a number of football players from Belarus, said that the adoption of such a document, in principle, would not bring any changes.
“This document evokes an idiotic smile.
If this was accepted in Russia or another developed country, then one could speculate.
When this is accepted in a poor league, when there is a gap in salaries and resources between the teams at the top and bottom of the table, it brings a smile and suggests that the leaders of the federation have nothing to do ... commercial activities.
We have enough specialists in bast shoes.
It's just paper rubbish.
The management has a complete misunderstanding of the situation, ”Isaev emphasized.
There is one more problematic aspect.
The decision on the limit may have to be approved quickly.
The introduction of a salary cap for 2021 was actively discussed at the end of December.
Whereas, according to the pressball.by portal, the new season in Belarus is planned to start with the Super Cup match on February 28, and a week later to start the quarterfinals of the country's Cup.
It is unknown how the final version of the salary ceiling will receive the approval of the ABFF Executive Committee, the teams will be staffed according to the updated requirements, and then their financial documents will be checked.
And the system of punishing violators is not yet available.
This means that there is a high probability that any controversial or conflict situation that arose during this period will sow even greater tension in the world of Belarusian football.