Gao Speaks....

[SaintinNZ]

Here’s me being idealistic again, but it would be relatively simple for FIFA/UEFA to make a rule that players have to finish their contracts. That would also have the effect of lowering transfer fees from the ridiculous amounts they have become. Our business model would still work, especially if we carry on turning out decent graduates from the Academy.

Its a very one sided scenario at the moment. I've often thought that a restraint of trade clause is necessary, allowing clubs to control the transfer of players to a greater degree. At the moment players can do whatever they want regardless of legal contracts, restraint of trade preventing them moving to a club in the UK wouldn't seem particularly onerous or illegal. If both parties agree to a move then the clause could be removed but the club would be in the driving seat as opposed to being powerless. I'm sure it been discussed at length somewhere but never looked for it.

 

[Archers Road]

Interesting! Call me uninformed, but football isn't an area I devote loads of time to, but I read somewhere today that the MLS has a salary cap. They did this because the previous incarnation of US Association Football blew up and folded because there wasn't one.

I find that interesting because even the bastiam of capitalism realises that you get a fairer sporting environment if salaries aren't so widely different.

There are lots of examples, both in sport and elsewhere, of the “bastion of capitalism” regulating markets where it is in the public interest to do so. Modern Britain and Europe is in many ways more wedded to the doctrine of the free market than the USA - parts of it anyway.

 

[TheSecondStain]

There are lots of examples, both in sport and elsewhere, of the “bastion of capitalism” regulating markets where it is in the public interest to do so. Modern Britain and Europe is in many ways more wedded to the doctrine of the free market than the USA - parts of it anyway.

But not football [gulp, Soccer], which was the subject I was referring to.

 

[Archers Road]

But not football [gulp, Soccer], which was the subject I was referring to.

Definitely football, which is an unregulated free for all in Europe, and clearly less so in the US. I thought that was your point?

 

[TheSecondStain]

Definitely football, which is an unregulated free for all in Europe, and clearly less so in the US. I thought that was your point?

Indeed.
I've just re-read your post and now it makes perfect sense to me. Ignore post no. 183.