A relative salary cap for Italy’s Serie C was recently announced with big headlines. But whether it will actually happen remains to be seen.
The plan sounds temptingly good: clubs in the third division will only be allowed to spend a maximum of 55 percent of their revenue on personnel, otherwise they will face fines, point deductions or, in extreme cases, even the withdrawal of their license. The clubs themselves approved this at their Serie C general meeting on Wednesday, and league boss Matteo Mariani was quoted as saying: “We have to control spending to avoid the financial collapse of Italian soccer. Without a healthy approach to financial resources, soccer cannot survive.”
Concrete talks with the union are still pending
These are true words from the manager, especially since they apply to all football clubs. In Germany’s Regionalliga West, for example, bankruptcies are currently piling up. In the 3rd division, too, there have been prominent examples in recent years of clubs such as KFC Uerdingen and Türkgücü Munich living beyond their means, often driven by megalomaniac would-be investors. So the idea of a so-called relative salary cap is fundamentally good and timely. However, whether it will actually be implemented in Serie C is highly questionable.
This is because it is only a test phase for the 2025/26 season. Before the issue can be permanently enshrined in law – Mariani and his team are hoping for official introduction from 2026/27 – concrete talks must be held with other parties. For example, with the relevant national players’ union, AIC. Bringing them on board as market participants and representatives of the professionals is required under European law, otherwise there is a risk of competition law problems.
Fifpro has always sided with local branches in such cases
But what motivation would a union have to agree to a fixed upper limit? Accordingly, relevant circles are saying that the introduction of a salary cap is not really up for debate at the moment. Ergo: there is still a lot of work to be done. The international players’ union Fifpro, which is at loggerheads with FIFA over issues such as the increasingly tight schedule, has also repeatedly backed national representatives when local caps were to be introduced, as in Panama and Guatemala.
However, the salary cap remains a hot topic, and not just since Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, member of the supervisory board at FC Bayern, recently pushed for it again in the media. Even renowned lawyers such as Bayreuth-based sports and antitrust law expert Prof. Dr. Peter W. Heermann see opportunities for introducing such a cap. However, a detailed consultation process is needed to make this legally watertight.
Squad costs are also a major issue at UEFA
Various leagues and UEFA will also be watching developments closely. After all, its president, Aleksander Ceferin, recently considered relaxing the reduction in squad costs to 70 percent of total revenue, which had actually been decided for the coming season, and leaving the current 80 percent as the benchmark. Representatives of the European Leagues, especially those from Germany and Spain, who are considered pioneers in the fight for financial sustainability, will be watching this process very closely.
