Salary cap is for the greater good says Fleetwood chairman Andy Pilley

Andy Pilley is confident he will steer Fleetwood Town through football's 'rocky waters'

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A maximum spend of £2.5m on players’ wages has been introduced across League One this season but is not universally popular.

Some argue that clubs which would normally generate greater revenue through their larger fanbase should be entitled to spend more.

However, chairman Pilley believes the top priority is to keep 72 EFL clubs in existence and feels the cap has a vital role to play.

Speaking to the D3D4 football podcast, Pilley said: “The salary cap thankfully has come into play and I think it’s the right thing to happen. We have to live within our means.

“I don’t think it’s wrong to be on a level playing field. If football is about who has the best manager and culture, and who can get the most our of his players and is most switched-on tactically, I don’t think that’s a bad world.

“It should not necessarily be about who spends most money. That may sound ironic from someone who has supposedly bankrolled his way up the leagues, but football clubs are going out of business and I’m doing my best to steer my club through the rocky waters.

“I will get through this. It’s very difficult, though, and my concern is there are clubs whose owners may not have the resources I do.

“I think there may be scars that the EFL has to live with for a long, long time if we can’t find a remedy.

“The salary cap avoids clubs getting financially distressed or it should do. There will be people who like it and people who don’t but we have to make decisions for the greater good, and if that’s being able to maintain 72 EFL clubs that’s the right thing to happen.”

Pilley, who has also called for politicians and Premier League clubs to join forces to rescue cash-starved clubs, fears the whole fabric of the English game is at stake.

He added: “I believe what makes English football so good is that our dreams and nightmares can come true.

“ We have this pyramid whereby you can go up and down, and everyone wants to watch the key games at the end of the season.

“If we just end up with the Premier League and a load of their B teams my obsession with football will be on the line.”