Perth Glory isn’t yet guilty of a salary cap breach.

And the Western Australian A-League club “is confident it will address all the allegations raised by the FFA (Football Federation Australia)” by the close of business tomorrow.

Nevertheless, with the finals series beginning on the first weekend of May, the FFA must be ready to make its next move if Glory is found guilty.

The potential punishment could include the loss of competition points and that might mean Perth losing its place in the finals. With three rounds remaining, Glory already has enough points to guarantee a spot in the end of season playoffs.

In a statement last week, the FFA listed several alleged breaches and this has resulted in speculation about amounts that were paid outside of standard contracts, how they were paid and which player(s) benefitted.

For fans, however, the most important sentence in the FFA’s statement is this: “The value of the undisclosed payments and benefits involved in the alleged breaches would place Perth Glory significantly in excess of the allowable salary cap of $2.55m.”

While a cap is in place, when our club makes signings and releases players, we want to be assured the resulting squad is as good as it can be given the limited dollars available.

As an A-League player’s average wage is just over $100,000 a year (not including the three marquee players each team is allowed), difficult decisions have to be made frequently.

It’s hard to know how much money is “significantly in excess of the allowable salary cap” in the eyes of the FFA but it hardly matters. An amount as small as $50,000 could decide whether a club retains a player or loses him to a rival team. And that one player might make a big difference to a club’s success.

Which is why, if Perth has overspent the limit, the FFA must be merciless in its punishment. Every point earned would have been illegitimate.

With David Gallop in charge, mercy might be in short supply anyway. As CEO of the National Rugby League, he announced Melbourne Storm would be stripped of two premierships because of salary cap breaches. Compared to that, throwing Glory out of this season’s finals would be like issuing a parking ticket.

But then what?

There seems to be an acceptance among A-League followers that if Perth Glory is found guilty and removed from the finals, it will simply be replaced by another team in the same way Carlton replaced Essendon in the 2013 AFL finals.

Please no.

Six teams qualify for the A-League finals and we only have 10 in the competition.

You got that? As things stand, one team that fails to finish in the top half of the table, a team that merely beats four others home in a 27 round season, gets to play finals.

All A-League finals matches are knockout matches; the “double chance” is not given to the top teams. The reward for first or second is just advancing to week two and having home ground advantage.

Only three games separate the team that finishes sixth from the championship. The title of Champion of Australia would surely sit awkwardly with a team that played 27 matches which, by definition, resulted in a mediocre record, despite then managing three playoff wins.

So we must have a finals series with some credibility. There certainly won’t be any if the team that finishes seventh out of 10 gets a shot at the title, even if that team is officially sixth because someone above it loses competition points.

Imagine if that happened and the three finals successes were all thanks to penalty shootouts? Many supporters would be appalled.

Now we have the prospect of seventh place qualifying? You’re kidding.

Brisbane Roar currently sits seventh. So far the Queensland team has eight wins, four draws and 11 losses.

Brisbane has won the title three times in the last four seasons and its best is still good enough to beat any A-League team. But its record in 2014-15 would mock a series which, for better or worse, decides the championship.

We could debate whether we have finals at all but that’s another column. In most countries, the team that finishes first, after everyone has played each other home and away, wins the championship; finals or playoffs are not used (not for that purpose anyway). Knockout cups satisfy a fan’s need to watch games which result in the winners getting nice big trophies and the losers slumping on the playing surface in despair.

Finals are a sporting tradition in Australia so we have a neat compromise in the A-League. The top team at the end of the home and away season wins the premiership. The title that goes with that is Premiers – not Minor Premiers. It also guarantees qualification for the Asian Champions League irrespective of what happens in the finals. Unlike the despised McClelland Trophy awarded to the team that finishes top of the AFL ladder, the A-League premiership is a genuine honour.

Still, everyone craves the championship, and that’s awarded to the grand final winner.

So we must have a finals series with some credibility. There certainly won’t be any if the team that finishes seventh out of 10 gets a shot at the title, even if that team is officially sixth because someone above it loses competition points.

FFA boss David Gallop: Melbourne Storm was stripped of two premierships when he led the NRL. Photo: AAP

If Perth Glory is found guilty of salary cap breaches and loses its spot in the finals, the best thing to do would be proceeding with just five teams.

There’d be no need to redesign the format. In the current system, third plays sixth and fourth plays fifth in week one. In week two, one of the first week winners plays the team that finished second; the other plays the team that finished top.

With one club removed, the fourth versus fifth match can go ahead in week one, but third place can go straight to week two to face the team that finished second. There is still an advantage for the second placed team as it gets to play that game at home.

This would mean one less match is played and, doubtless, the FFA, broadcasters and sponsors have been counting on income generated from that game.

But a lowly team emerging to win the grand final would be far more damaging as it would make the competition a laughing stock. It’s not worth the risk.

Paul Marcuccitti’s soccer column is usually published in InDaily on Mondays. He is a co-presenter of 5RTI’s Soccer on 531 program which can be heard from 11am on Saturdays.