Portsmouth chief Mark Catlin: Football braced for mini-auction to beat salary cap proposals

A ‘mini-auction’ is set to be launched among League One and League Two clubs.
Pompey chief executive Mark Catlin expects a 'mini-auction' as clubs attempt to beat the proposed salary cap. Picture: Joe PeplerPompey chief executive Mark Catlin expects a 'mini-auction' as clubs attempt to beat the proposed salary cap. Picture: Joe Pepler
Pompey chief executive Mark Catlin expects a 'mini-auction' as clubs attempt to beat the proposed salary cap. Picture: Joe Pepler

Yet Mark Catlin is adamant there will be no ‘crazy contracts’ at Pompey during the potential stampede for signings before the August 6 salary cap vote.

The Football League have scrapped plans for a June 30 deadline before players qualify for inclusion under the proposed wage ceiling.

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Instead that has been switched to August 6 – the same day as the League One and League Two vote.

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Catlin now expects a ‘mini-auction’ ahead of that date as clubs speed up recruitment.

And while the Blues themselves intend to be active this summer, they won’t be putting themselves in financial jeopardy.

Pompey’s chief executive told The News: ‘What I believe has upset a number of clubs, including ourselves, is that the Football League were clear from the start that June 30 was the window to sign up players before the salary cap came in.

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‘Now they have changed it – and that has opened the floodgates for a mini-auction of players to get them into your squad before August 6.

‘There remains the possibility of a salary cap but, predominantly, we have a judiciary duty to look after the interests of Portsmouth Football Club.

‘We have been saying for a long time that you cannot issue pre-covid 19 salary levels to players when we don’t even know when fans are going to be allowed to be back in – and at what level.

‘So what we can’t be doing at the moment is offering crazy contracts to beat the salary cap when there is no income coming in. We are losing a significant amount of money each month.

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‘Agents keep telling me that X player is being offered Y amount at different clubs, yet I think a lot of it is them trying to stir this mini-auction of players before the salary cap.’

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