David Sullivan wants to change the loan system for Premier League

David Sullivan, a co-owner of West Ham United spoke out recently on a couple of interesting topics. He stated the loan system should be reviewed as it allows only lets English teams borrow two players from other British clubs, but there’s no limit on how many they can borrow from abroad.

West Ham recently borrowed Tal Ben-Haim from Portsmouth and was also going to borrow striker Felipe Caicedo from Manchester City, but decided against it just in case a better player came available for a loan.
Sullivan said he liked to see the rule overhauled as he feels English teams are being penalized compared to the foreign clubs. He pointed out that teams that are usually relegated from the Premier League usually try to loan out their more expensive players as they can’t always afford the wages.

Another point Sullivan made was that players should have clauses in their contracts that automatically cut their wages in half if their club gets relegated. He said all contracts should be amended to make the rule compulsory.

He said he has mentioned this to various EPL shareholders, but doesn’t think that any of the teams support it. He then added they might reconsider it now because the financial situation in the league has changed.

Sullivan knows the players wouldn’t stand for it though, so all clubs would need to implement the rule, not just one or two of them as players would then look to play for any team but them. However, he said if all English soccer teams adopted the rule and they didn’t like it they’d have to go play abroad instead of the Premier League.

The West Ham co-owner said he doesn’t believe in any type of salary cap as football should be a free market system. He emphasized that relegated teams are faced with a heavy financial burden and that something should be done to make sure they can survive if they are sent down. And that cutting players’ wages in half could be a good start.