SOMETIMES you can’t always sign the players you want. Just ask Frank Farina, whom this week made a proposal of a salary cap for youth league players.

The aim?

To stop players from signing lucrative senior contracts with other clubs.

Farina proposed that a rule should be introduced to limit the amount of money a player earns in his first two A-League seasons. This would mean that other clubs could only offer him a “common fee” to move to their club, even if they were signing him to an A-League contract. Essentially, this hoped to keep players at their youth club.

Under the current NYL rules, players can only sign a 1-2 year amateur contract and can only be called up to an A-League squad as an injury replacement.

The proposal made by Farina seems to be a bit one-eyed and more about losing players to rival clubs than anything else.

What I would like to question is why we should be limiting the careers of our young talent? Why should we be tying our future stars to such minimal contracts and saying “that’s all you’re gonna get anyway”?

If a player is playing youth football for one club but is wanted by another club to play A-League football, then there shouldn’t be rules in place to discourage him from taking the step up. If clubs really don’t want a player to leave then they can tie him to an A-League contract and do an Alex Ferguson style “he’s not for sale” thing or just let him go.

In the article Farina wrote on the issue, he stated that if youth players could only earn a common wage, then A-League clubs “wouldn't have to question how much money they were spending on the development of young players and the cost of participating in the National Youth League”.

So what? Why should we be limiting the salaries of our future stars? In my opinion (and many others), the A-League salary cap structure is, in its current state, ridiculous. The reason we lose young talent is because we simply do not have the financial support to keep them.

Take James Holland for example. He’s just jetted off to AZ Alkmaar to complete the signing of a lucrative 4 year deal with the Dutch club. He’s still eligible to play in the National Youth League. Con Constantine aside, the Jets simply could not afford to pay him the sort of salary he could get in Europe.

It’s a similar case with these youth players. I have seen several players in the National Youth League who I think could definitely compete in Europe’s lower leagues. Bear in mind that some of the players in the youth league are 20 and are old enough and experienced enough to be playing lower European level. What is to stop them from signing with some third tier English side that can not only offer a step into the big time but a larger salary?

Putting a cap on the amount a player can earn will lead to the loss of players from Australian soil.

Farina also stated that clubs would “receive no compensation for the loss of an emerging talent”. Earth calling Frankie, clubs often don’t receive compensation when they lose a player. It’s a fact of life that, if you can’t offer an equal or better salary to a player of yours who is off contract at the end of the season, you will lose him to another club and not get any compensation.

If it is really such a big issue then maybe the FFA needs to implement a standard amount that clubs would be compensated with when they lose a youth player.

We need to encourage A-League clubs to be competing for the signature of these players. If a Mariners youth player is offered a better deal and signs with the Jets first team then so be it.

A salary cap is NOT what our youth league needs. We’ve seen the exodus of talent from Australia as a result of the A-League salary cap and we should learn from this.