Portsmouth winger Ryan Williams admits promotion stakes are high as he seeks to secure family's future

The Australian international has voiced his anger at the impact of the salary cap on players in the lower leagues after its controversial introduction.

Williams feels the new wage ceiling potentially wrecks everything he and footballers like him have been working towards, with the average lower-league career spanning seven years.

The 26-year-old has a single year remaining on his contract at Fratton Park after arriving from Rotherham last summer.

If that deal arrives outside of the second tier, it means the winger will have to fall within the new £2.5m limit clubs are working to - meaning his earnings are likely to take a hit.

After striving to make a living in England after arriving in the country a decade ago, Williams views the rule changes as an unfair restraint - and knows it significantly ups the ante for players to reach the Championship where there’s no cap in place yet.

He said: ‘I just think it’s wrong.

‘I was saying to my the missus, you work so hard to get yourself into a position where your next contract may be a really good one - but then this is put in front of you.

‘I’ve been over here 10 years now to try to get myself in a position where the next contract would be a really nice one and good for my family, and then this is thrown at you.

‘I know it’s different for us compared to a lot of the population, because there’s no real similarity in wages.

‘But this is a short career and this is the entertainment business, so footballers are helping other people to enjoy their lives.

‘Ideally I would’ve liked to have got up last season, of course, and I guess it would’ve given me a little more bargaining power.

‘But either way (being out of contract next summer) I just want to get promoted and get the club into the Championship.’

Williams noted how the manner in which players battle their way up the league ladder to make a success of themselves, has now been spun on its head by the salary cap’s introduction.

He feels a situation will now unfold where players in the National League will earn more than players two divisions above them, and questioned how such a scenario can be right.

Williams added: ‘The gap between the Conference and League One is going to be nothing now.

‘There’s going to be Conference players on more money than what players will be in League One. It’s just criminal.

‘You work your way up the pyramid for a reason.

‘The difference between the Championship and League One is just going to be too big now.

‘There’s going to be three teams coming down, three teams going up and it’s going to be a big cycle.

‘You actually wouldn’t be displeased to be a yo-yo team because you’re going to get far more wages than you would if you were any other team in League One.‘It sucks from a position of the club and us players in League One and League Two - but the club’s position, especially.’

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