Joel Richards 

Former FA Chief Executive Mark Palios has called for a two-year player wage cap in order to prevent financial meltdown for lower-league clubs in England.

Speaking on beIN SPORTS’ Keys & Gray show, the Tranmere Rovers chairman outlined his bold proposal to combat a worrying time for EFL clubs struggling to survive during the coronavirus pandemic.

Palios said: “Make it as simple as possible. Just put wage caps in, and try it for two years when we come out of this because when we come out of this you’re going to have a lot of clubs that are financially weaker.”

Despite insisting his own club have cash reserves, Palios fears many clubs will struggle to continue without a radical overhauling of the current system.

He added: “I just think that when we come out of this, because of the focus of the fact that A, all of the clubs are hand to mouth, B, the wages market is just ridiculous and that we can come out with some very simple controls because if you go back to where you started then you have all these esoteric accounting issues to deal with.”

When asked about to deal with the issue around finishing the league season, Palios believes the authorities should allow as much time as possible to complete matters. With his Tranmere side currently 21st and three points adrift of safety in League One, Palios added: “If you finish the league, whenever you finish the league it doesn’t really matter and if it pushed into next season so what? 

“So what if it takes us one, two or three years to get back a month at a time or whatever and then you get back into what we now consider normality. These are abnormal times so they’re abnormal solutions.”