Editor’s note: This is part two of a series of articles written by Stephen Lucey. Part one, released earlier this week, focused on whether a salary cap could save the Premier League from itself. Part two, here, discusses unrestricted free agency and compares the NFL model to the Premier League.

Portsmouth FC are near-mortally crippled by their wage bill, and are left to wander the Arabian deserts with their shower caps extended for oil soaked charity. The Premiership has been seduced by potential riches, and borrowed itself into a black hole filled with bank notes to pay down and creditors to to foil. UEFA’s report released yesterday attributes a 56% controlling majority share of European football’s debt to the Premier League. Obviously, competing in Europe is paramount for English football, but creating a sustainable economic model has to become as important a priority going forward.

Here I’ll acknowledge a concern from some of the previous commenters: Yes, the EPL and NFL are different entities with different structures, competitive factors and concerns, but they are also similar. The Premier League seceded from the Football League in 1992, establishing a corporation with each club holding a vote and equal stake in the partnership, and the NFL functions in much the same fashion. While opinions on revenue sharing in the NFL would vary owner to their contribution, it has been widely acknowledged as their best solution for a financially healthy league.

When the NFL introduced the hard salary cap in 1994, it did so on the back of unrestricted free agency, a policy adopted just a year prior in 1993. After a player had reached four years’ accrued service, he was free to sign with any team at the expiration of his contract. The speculation and anticipation of potential player moves bedded in nicely with the cable sports 24 hours a day news cycle, keeping loud, sometimes punch-drunk ex-players in paychecks, and ensuring interest in the league would only gather steam over the offseason.

An economic success for NFL franchises is the ability of a team to terminate a player’s contract at anytime, based on performance, age, health, or any other reason a millionaire might have to save some scratch. An NFL team can also claim one player with a “franchise” tag, compensating that player with one year’s salary averaged from the Top 5 paid at their position.

The transfer window system unnecessarily forces teams into long-term planning while the nature of sport is in immediacy and reaction. Restricting player movement only ends up restricting the potential quality of play, which is what we, as fans of great competition, should all care about. It is hard to say whose interests are greatly favored by this policy, which makes its skin tight oppression all the more confusing to a neophyte.

The hard cap created a new commodity in the NFL: cap space. Where transfers in the Premier League generally involve cash and credit transactions, NFL franchises value taking a player’s salary off the books when factoring out how older players’ contracts are dealt with. A lot of young NFL players will receive their biggest payday before they’ve entered the prime of their playing career. World football’s balance sheets are plagued with that one last payday for an aging, but perhaps outward star with a haul of credentials.

This week on EPL Talk we’ll bring you exclusive interviews from some of the biggest names in English football such as Andrew Cole and Dwight Yorke, as well as an interview with ESPN pundit Shaka Hislop. Our coverage began last Friday with an exclusive interview with ESPN analyst Tommy Smyth. And it continues today with a glimpse of what it was like to spend five days at sea with Cole, Yorke, Hislop, Smyth and the ESPN crew.

Many of you who read EPL Talk regularly will probably know that I’m no fan of American football. It’s not that I hate the NFL. It’s just that I find it mind numbingly boring, which is only made worse by the multitude of TV commercials that permeate each game.

So when I was approached by ESPN last week to go on a 5-day cruise as part of their “Super Bowl At Sea” viewing party, I was hesitant at first until I learned that the cruise would feature two of the greatest strikers ever to grace the English Premier League, Andrew Cole and Dwight Yorke, as well as ESPN pundits Tommy Smyth and Shaka Hislop. How could I pass up a chance of a lifetime opportunity to interview these players and pundits?

The premise of the cruise was to bring together celebrities from both the American and European codes of football to promote ESPN International’s coverage of the Super Bowl, which was televised live to more than 51 million households in 140 countries and territories throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle Easr, Israel, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Rim and much of Europe.

While on the journey, the ESPN crew recorded several reports for SportsCenter and Press Pass to be aired during the week on ESPN in the Pacific Rim and Latin America.

During the cruise, I had the opportunity to spend quite a lot of time with Tommy Smyth, had lunch with Dwight Yorke, talked football with Andrew Cole and Shaka Hislop and got to know the former NFL players pretty well who were also on board such as Rod Coleman, Carl Pickens and Norris McCleary.

Here are the stories from my adventures on the high seas with ESPN, Yorke and Cole:

Driving down the highway on the Thursday afternoon before the Super Bowl, it seemed a little surreal to be passing the Sun Life Stadium, the site of the Super Bowl where the TV signal would be beamed to approximately 93 million people worldwide. It was almost as if I was trying to find a way to get as far away from the stadium as possible to watch the game on television. The stadium is 43 miles from my house. Cozumel, my destination, was 610 miles away.

After setting sail from Miami aboard Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas cruise ship, I was immediately surprised at how many vacationers were walking around wearing Arsenal jerseys. In my first hour, I saw three or four. Some of the people wearing the shirts were either ex-pats or people on holiday from England, but one bloke I struck up a conversation with was from Toronto and was a massive Gooner.

That afternoon, I went up to the deck of the ship to meet the ESPN television crew and watched Tommy Smyth record a couple of segments. Wearing a sombrero and holding a pina colada in one hand, Smyth sat down on a deck chair and started talking about the upcoming Super Bowl and the festivities that were happening aboard the ship. No teleprompters, no scripts. Smyth was a natural. He’s a born talker and definitely has the gift of the gab.

As the afternoon rolled into the evening, I was really impressed by Smyth’s work-rate. The Irishman was all over the place. Talking in front of the camera on the deck, signing autographs and shaking hands wherever he walked, and then moving down a few levels in the shop to record another segment, and then later hosting the first of the evening’s shows from the theater on board. The man is a dynamo.

The next day, the Friday before the Super Bowl, I stood in the crowd and watched Smyth host a TV segment which featured the three NFL players to his right, and the three soccer players to his left. It was my first opportunity to see Andrew Cole, Dwight Yorke and Shaka Hislop in person. Smyth was the ideal person to be in the middle of them. Asking questions of the NFL players and getting their insight into the upcoming Super Bowl. And then asking the soccer players about their thoughts on the Super Bowl and soccer-related topics. The most eyeopening discussion for me was Smyth’s questions to both the NFL and soccer athletes when he asked them about what it was really like to be on the field and how much banter players would get into against their opponents.

A theme that arose in the segment that Smyth hosted ran through the entire weekend. And that was the banter between the soccer players and American footballers about which form of football was better. It was all in good taste. But incredibly the banter lasted throughout the weekend from Friday morning all the way through to Sunday night. There was even a scavenger hunt on board the ship the following day pitting “Football Against Football” with teams captained by the soccer players battling against the NFL athletes. But without a doubt, by the time the cruise was over, the NFL athletes had a better appreciation for soccer and the soccer players, and the soccer players and pundits had a better appreciation of NFL. After chatting with McCleary, Coleman and Pickens, I too had a better appreciation for NFL. All three NFL athletes were down-to-earth, well spoken and a pleasure to meet.

The “Football Against Football” theme was a constant throughout the entire weekend in a couple of different ways.

First, whenever there were functions aboard ship such as an opportunity for vacationers to meet and greet the players, the soccer crew were far more in demand than the NFL players. At times, the NFL players hung back in the shadows while the crowds seemed more interested in chatting with the soccer players and pundits.

Second, there was a private function that allowed the crew members to meet both the NFL and soccer stars in one room. ESPN had a box of American footballs and one box of soccer balls. Both were emblazoned with the ESPN logo. And the crew members who walked into the room had a choice of picking either ball and getting it signed by any of the stars in the room. After between 100-200 ecstatic crew members came into the room, the box of soccer balls was soon depleted. But the box of American footballs was nearly empty but still had plenty for crew members to select from, if they wanted. Pretty soon, ESPN had to grab another box of soccer balls.

In that room, it was a very multicultural experience. You had crew members from around the world. There was a soccer fan from the Middle East who asked Shaka Hislop how he could get a visa to become a soccer player in the States. There were plenty of soccer mad fans from Africa and the Caribbean. There were girls from Australia and South Africa, a few Americans and even a lady from Wales, much to my delight. With it being such a multicultural group, it was interesting to see how popular the soccer players were. And yet again, how the NFL athletes drifted into the background but humbly welcomed anyone who approached them for an autograph.

The other constant theme throughout the entire weekend of the cruise was the popularity of Tommy Smyth. More people approached him aboard the ship and in Mexico than Cole, Yorke, Hislop and the NFL athletes combined. There were constantly people coming up to him and introducing themselves and getting their pictures taken with him. Not everyone knew his name, but there were constantly people complementing him and I heard several “Is that Tommy Smyth?!” questions from the crowds I walked through with him. Ever gracious, Smyth took his time and cracked a few jokes and always gave the strangers his full attention.

With Andrew Cole and Dwight Yorke, I had no idea whether they would both be a prima donna or very down to earth. Out of the two, Cole impressed me the most. He was well spoken, very quiet at times but always humble and a perfect English gentleman. In the first couple of days, Yorke was invisible at times. You would see him at the times when he was supposed to be interviewed. But afterwards he drifted away and didn’t seem to hang out with the crew much or participate in all of the activities. As a result, it was harder to get to know Yorke but during the last 24 hours of the cruise, I had the chance to have spend more time with him: at lunch, on the captain’s bridge and during the Super Bowl. As soon as I got to know him better, he opened up more and once you got to know him, he was great.

For both Yorke and Cole, they were able to walk around the cruise ship and stroll down the Promenade without being bothered by the few thousand cruisegoers walking past.

I didn’t get to spend as much time with Shaka Hislop as I would have liked but every time I was near him, he was the perfect gentleman. Jovial, always good natured, he seemed to always be enjoying life and his role as a pundit for ESPN is a perfect role for him after a distinguished career in the Premier League, World Cup and Major League Soccer.

Throughout the weekend, there was plenty of panel discussions among the athletes hosted by Smyth, and joined by Hislop. When the discussions were more NFL-centered, ESPN International side-line commentator Georgina Ruiz-Sandoval joined in.

While aboard the ship I had the chance to watch ESPN International on the TV in my stateroom. The Saturday morning match between Liverpool and Everton was shown live on the channel. The only difference between the broadcast of the match on ESPN International versus ESPN2 was the TV commercials. Instead of the typical Axe and armed forces commercials, ESPN International showed promos for their upcoming programs. Two, in particular, got my notice. The first was one for Serie A, which is shown by ESPN outside the United States. And the second one was for a program called The Legends Of Cricket, which featured lots of black-and-white archived footage.

The final two stories I want to share with you from the cruise are about Tommy Smyth and the climax of the cruise which was the Super Bowl.

I heard a surreal story from Smyth, which was confirmed by an ESPN employee, that Tommy Smyth is big in Nigeria. Yes, Nigeria. So big in fact that Smyth sometimes receives e-mails from the defense minister of Nigeria commentating on his tactical analysis. And most of the fan mail that Smyth gets is from Nigeria. He’s so big in Nigeria that football supporters there often pass around bootlegs of Smyth’s work throughout the country.

All of the events from the weekend culminated in the big game, the Super Bowl. Sitting in a theater that was converted from an ice skating rink to a viewing party, all of the ESPN crew and athletes were present as we sat down to watch the New Orleans Saints take on the Indianapolis Colts. In the first half of the game, it was very one-sided and looked like it was going to be a blow out win for the Colts when they were 10-0 ahead.

During breaks in the game, and there were plenty of them, I had a couple of conversations with Cole and asked him what he thought. His reaction was that he couldn’t believe how many TV breaks there were in the game. For someone who is so used to an almost fluid 90 minutes of non-stop action in soccer, except for half time, the degree to which TV controls American football instead of American football controlling TV is hard to believe. Sure, the TV commercials are often more appealing to many viewers than the actual game itself, but since we were watching the ESPN International feed, there were no commercials. So the game seemed to drag on even more than usual.

Luckily, the Super Bowl came to life in the second half and it ended up being pretty exciting especially since the underdog won. As soon as the game ended, the ESPN crew and athletes moved outside the theater and began singing “When The Saints Go Marching In,” including Yorke who was having in a party spirit.

The five day cruise opened my eyes to ESPN International’s TV coverage around the world. And as Tommy Smyth said to me, he’s commentating just as many Champions League games as he was before but the only difference is that the games aren’t shown on ESPN in the United States any more. It was a pleasure to get to know ESPN better, and they were the perfect hosts. It was also a honor to meet Cole, Yorke, Hislop, Smyth and the NFL athletes. But the star for me that long Super Bowl weekend wasn’t a New Orleans Saints player. It was Tommy Smyth.

In a refreshing change of events, former Birmingham City owners, David Gold and David Sullivan took control of the Hammers and admitted straightaway the mess that West Ham United have been battling with. Since the crashing collapse of the Icelandic banking system, West Ham had been financially stricken and the true extent of the footballing debt is now apparent. The Hammers owe £110 million out. One Hundred and Ten Million pounds.

Only in November did C.B. Holdings claim that the Hammers were in debt to the tune of £38 million, misleading the fans in to thinking that the situation was nowhere near as bad as some in the media had reported. In fact it was almost 3 times as bad as they made out and the new owners/controllers made clear exactly where they debts lay. They also confirmed that the club were going to have to sell players in this transfer window, contrary to the clubs previous stance. An immediate cash injection of £8 million was needed to keep the club going.

The list reads like a what not to do in football, or to put it another way, how to run a club like Leeds United. It’s as if someone wrote a business plan based on what went wrong at Elland Road and it was mistranslated into Icelandic to make it seem positive. It’s madness to see the debt and borrowing going on at West Ham over the last 3 years.

• £50 million owed to banks.
• £40 million owed to other clubs for transfers.
• The £40 million owed to other clubs, includes £20 million compensation to Sheffield United.
• Alan Curbishley is still owed his severance deal after winning his case for constructive dismissal
• No-one owes West Ham any money, all player transfer fees that were received paid the bank debt immediately
• C.B. Holdings had borrowed money against the next two seasons season ticket revenue
• There is no money for strengthening the squad.

Now this paints a completely different figure to what the West Ham fans believed, rightly or wrongly what the were being told. The previous regime were filling there heads with nonsense. It is a very real prospect that relegation would have seen West Ham implode financially. No ifs, no buts, they were immediately into administration. After all the information about Leeds United, C.B. Holdings were following exactly the same route.

It seems like absolute madness that not one lesson from the Yorkshire clubs demise has served to teach anyone anything it seems, as we see with the issues at Manchester United, Portsmouth and Liverpool in the last week. Regardless of the riches awash for the Premiership clubs, you still have to cut your cloth accordingly. Someone sooner or later is going to fall over the edge, which is a subject I’m going to be looking at in more depth for EPLtalk.com next week.

Gold and Sullivan have acted quickly in bringing in their trusted lieutenant, Karen Brady as vice chairman and she’ll be quick to install some much needed pragmatism at Upton Park. They are now going to talk to Newham council about moving to the Olympic Stadium after the 2012 Olympics. That could be  a challenge as Tottenham enquired about taking it over and were plainly told it was not available. The Olympic stadium is set to be reduced from its 80,000 capacity down to a pointless 30,000, for which there is neither the use nor the need.

The NFL could still play a part in the stadium’s future use that could play into West Ham’s hands. The NFL have earmarked that the often mooted London franchise’s potential base could be there. It would certainly make more sense to use it as a dual sport stadium than a white elephant for athletics, which is the current plan. There is neither the inclination or support for that size of athletics venue in London, they should sell it and use the money to redevelop Crystal Palace Athletic Stadium.

So now, West Ham have to focus on the future and the fans will be thankful that regardless of the criticisms that could be placed at Gold and Sullivan’s door during their tenure at Birmingham City, they still have a club to support. The work is now on to bring in fresh investment to try and work off the remaining debt and crucial to that is the fact that West Ham United need to stay up.

Gianfranco Zola has been nothing but a gentlemen throughout this difficult period for him and he needs to make sure that he can keep his side together for one almighty relegation scrap. For a first job, he has certainly been earning his money, of that there is no doubt. In the next six games, West Ham face Portsmouth, Blackburn Rovers, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Burnley, Birmingham City and Hull City. Come the end of February, Gold, Sullivan and Zola will know exactly the size of the task to keep West Ham United in the Premier League.

You may have missed an article by Oliver Kay in The Times this past weekend that featured a very revealing interview with Manchester City executive chairman Garry Cook regarding the future of the Premier League. The headline perfectly sums up Kay’s article: “Vision Of A Breakaway League With No Relegation.”

Here are the revealing quotes followed by my opinion:

1. “I wouldn’t have promotion and relegation. That’s what central entity is, like the NFL in American football. Once you get central entity, you basically share the wealth.” — What? Promotion are relegation are two of the reasons why the Premier League is so much more attractive to global viewers compared with the NFL. We’ve heard the Premier League mention this idea before, but the reaction from the paying public would be totally against it.
2. “If you want to become a multi-multibillion-pound empire, you may have to look at changing the model.” — ‘May have to look at changing the model’ is business talk for ‘Definitely will change the model.’ Be forewarned.
3. “I talk to Richard Scudamore about this all the time: ‘Are we maximising the central entity of the Premier League?’ And he rolls his eyes and says: ‘If only, if only we could, if only we would.’” – Quite a revealing statement from Cook that gives us a peek inside Scudamore’s thought process.
4. “We’re getting into a situation where there are maybe ten clubs. Do Saudi Arabians want to buy – and no disrespect to these clubs – Stoke City or Derby County? Or do they want to buy Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Manchester United, Manchester City?” – So, let me get this straight. The end goal is to sell all of these major clubs to the Middle East? Could D.I.C. be the first?

While the NFL is what the Premier League wants to be, especially in terms of their TV revenue, the biggest mistake the EPL could make is by creating a central entity. It’s the promotion and relegation which adds so much excitement and drama to the league.

If they Premier League did move to a central entity, a closed league, who would the 14 teams be?

1. Manchester United
2. Chelsea
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool
5. Aston Villa
6. Portsmouth
7. Tottenham Hotspur
8. Everton
9. Manchester City
10. Newcastle United
11. West Ham United
12. Sunderland
13. Middlesbrough
14. Blackburn Rovers

The teams that are currently in the Premier League who would not be included in the central entity, I believe are:

1. Fulham
2. Stoke City
3. West Bromwich Albion
4. Hull City
5. Wigan Athletic
6. Bolton Wanderers

Fulham would not be included due to the small capacity of their stadium. There’s little to no chance of the club leaving Craven Cottage. Wigan’s average attendance is the worst in the league, while I don’t see Bolton remaining in the Premier League much longer based on their current form.

The advantage of a central entity is that the league can have all 14 clubs working together and sharing the TV revenue to build the Premier League brand worldwide. The other advantage is that it would ensure club owners that their football team would continue to generate massive amounts of revenue each year rather than having to worry about the threat of dropping down a division due to relegation.

But by closing the doors on the league, it would break the hearts of the fans of other clubs hoping to be promoted into the top league. Massive clubs such as Leeds United, Birmingham City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and others would be refused the opportunity to see their club regain greatness.

And plucky clubs such as Reading would be prevented from reaching the upper echelons of English football.

Sure, the NFL generates more revenue than the Premier League does right now but that doesn’t mean that the Premier League has to imitate the American football league to achieve success.

What do you think? Share your feedback via the comments link below.