THE technical director of Asian football says the A-League salary cap is the number one reason why Australian clubs struggle to consistently challenge for the Champions League title.

And while Andy Roxburgh says Western Sydney’s fairytale 2014 success proves that money isn’t always the key determinant in the ACL, the Scot said the cash being thrown around in places like China and the Middle East will always make it hard for Australian clubs.

In 21 previous attempts combined, Australian clubs have failed to get out of the group stage in the ACL on 15 occasions.

The Wanderers win aside, there has been one runner-up from Australia (Adelaide in 2008), one quarter-finalist and three sides knocked out in the Round of 16.

Roxburgh, who was the UEFA Technical Director between 1994 and 2012 before taking up the Asian post last year, had experience working with a salary cap while he was sporting director at Tim Cahill’s New York Red Bulls from 2012-14.

And while he sees the positives in the cap’s implementation in markets such as the USA and Australia, he said there will always be drawbacks on the continental stage.

“What that meant in our part of the world was, when you played the CONCACAF continental championship, the Mexican teams always win it because they were paying out millions and millions to their whole squad,” Roxburgh said.

“The salary cap was very, very restrictive in that sense.

“Now I can understand the business reasons for it. You’re trying to make your league competitive so you don’t want the bottom to fall out of it.

“There are positives and negatives, but the salary cap will always restrict you in terms of how good you can be and how much talent you can have.

“You’ll never have a Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea-type club here, it wouldn’t work in a salary cap context.

“Australians have proven they can win the Champions League despite the salary cap, so maybe you can do it again, but it’s not going to be easy.”