Football: Vox Pop - With ever-spiralling wage demands, should there be a salary cap in football?

GEOFF HURST

England World Cup winner

I think the salaries are very high but if that's what the clubs can afford to pay then I say good luck to the players. I don't think in any industry you can put a ceiling on wages and football's the same. I played under a maximum wage but not for very long - only three or four years - and didn't think anything of it. Also I was too young back then to even receive the maximum. In those days you played football because you loved the game - as I'm sure they do today. The money wasn't a priority for me.

JOHN HOLLINS

Swansea City manager

There's a ceiling in America, isn't there? And they're still paid millions. I don't think you can do that here. You've got freedom to get what you can. It's not the players' fault, it's the people that pay the money. If they want to pay it, it's up to them. If someone wants to pay players pounds 30,000 a week, fair enough. I certainly wouldn't turn it down if I was a player. It's all about freedom for players. They've got the Bosman ruling in their favour, they've got everything. That's the law, those are the rules.

MARK MCGHEE

Former Wolves manager

I think this is a non-starter. I don't see how it could possibly be controlled. Football is a business and it is in clubs' interests to slow down wages and control costs, the same as in any business where wages become their biggest cost. If there's only one good player and two teams after him, then someone will pay him more than the other. If there were a wage ceiling there are ways around it as in Germany, where some club sponsors guarantee players a job for five years afterwards, as a sports consultant.

ALAN MULLERY

Former England captain

I don't think it will ever happen again. Big clubs will keep getting bigger and they'll keep paying the salaries. It's a trend that's not going to stop. We've got to accept it. The only problem is if one Premiership club goes under. If one big club goes to the wall, then everybody will sit down and think they should have reintroduced the maximum wage. At some stage someone's got to turn round and say this is now crackers. We've got to slow down but I don't think the maximum wage will come back again.

BARRY FRY

Peterborough manager

All the chairmen have discussed this at league meetings and there are some that want to make it a rule because the smaller clubs are struggling to exist. Clubs have got to make their own rules and say no if players' demands are too great. Players' wages and signing-on fees have gone up 70-80 per cent over the last four years and the commercial revenue hasn't so that's why so many clubs are in trouble. Yet I think it's wrong to cap a wage. If a chairman wants to pay a player so much, it's up to him.

GEORGE COHEN

England World Cup winner

It's illegal isn't it? It's restraint of trade, surely. Anyway, if players ask for these vast sums then it's up to clubs to either pay them or not, but it is not the players' fault for asking. The way round it is for clubs to have a proper youth system. That way you're not forking out huge amounts on transfers and can afford a proper wage structure. Look at Wimbledon. Until John Hartson they hadn't splashed out and there's only a small gap between them and the clubs at the top.