What ideas do you have to stop these Crazy Transfer fees and wages in the Premier League ? Buy out clause like in Spain of ridiculous transfer fee or buying club has to pay back all wages paid to player over full length of present contract to selling club. So his present club would give him a contract on high wages but regain them when sold, but it would effect older players who would have to probably see out their contract to go on a free.
The best and only way to do this IMO is to get all the sponsors like Sky and Npower to lower there offers to all clubs, so this in effect with stop them from making money so will lower the wages and transfer fees, as for the clubs who get taken over by billionaires they are only allowed to spend what they bring in, no suger daddys or owt, get the game back on track Craven
I don't think that would change things, you'd still get clubs who would pay it. The only way you'd do it is to not allow clubs to make a bid for players who aren't being made available for a transfer. Clubs trying to poach players from other clubs allow the selling club to dictate a fee. And since they usually don't want to sell, they'll make it ridiculous. Of course then you would get issues where players who want to leave would have to see out their contracts, which would raise all sorts of ethical debates. The only other way I can imagine is that a third party (like the PL) dictates the fee, and that they stick to a maximum fee. A salary cap should've been introduced a long while ago.
It is very difficult to find a formula that will make everyone happy (selling club, buying club and player). The formula gets even more complicated if you add different taxation per country and policies. The way to limit crazy transfer fees and salaries is to support Platini's and force the clubs to buy within their budget and profit/loss allowance. Otherwise there will never be a balance between the big teams in Europe and the rest. Unfortunately a few teams have become so powerful and strong that will take years to restore some type of balance. A couple of decades back there was a pluralism of teams competing in Europe. Now it is more or less the same and getting a bit boring...
This reminds me of the man asking for directions and being told, 'I wouldn't start from here if I were you, mate.' The die was cast when the Premier League was established. Unravelling what has happened since is going to prove impossible. I think English football has (or rather, had) a fundamental choice of whether it wants a competitive domestic league, or for its top clubs to be competitive in Europe. The basis on which the Premier League was set up put it squarely into the second category. At that point the division of money was slanted in favour of the big boys, enabling them to dominate the European qualification. Subsequent to that, the growth of the Champions League has seen a similar thing happening in countries that, unlike us, aren't able to sell their domestic tv rights for squillions. The teams that win the league get a big windfall, which enables them to improve their squad, infrastructure, etc, and therefore to further dominate the league. FFC Madness is right that Platini's plan is possibly the only way that a Europe-wide change can happen. Nothing is going to happen unilaterally in England unless everyone is willing to see us (by which I mean the top handful of clubs) cease to be big players on the European stage. Any wage caps, forced budget reductions or rules prohibiting bids for contracted players that only apply in one country will just lead to an exodus of playing talent to the leagues that aren't tapping the flow of money. Incidentally, I know this is a year out of date, but this article makes for interesting reading. If the kind of changes that we are advocating come into being, we could well be one of the biggest casualties. http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2010/08/theres-only-one-debt-in-fulham.html What should we do? Beats me. I think, barring Platini (funny how the Murdoch-led press paints him as 'anti-English', isn't it? Can't imagine they've got any conflict of interest in people actually listening to his proposals) we'll just carry on as we are with the rich getting richer, the poor spending beyond their means to survive and a few wise heads plotting a middle course that makes relegation a planned-for exercise in belt-tightening, rather than a panic to avoid complete financial collapse.
Captain, excellent article and good reading. You might be right thinking that we would be one of the biggest casualties but let's face it. Based on stadium capacity and other revenues only the big 4, plus a few others can make the rules. The only way to get richer is to invest. Hopefully this will translate to another good European season and mid-table in PL. It is the only way to attract fans (income) and young players. The possitive of the article is the graph comparing wages vs turnover. Turnover increases double the rate of wages which is encouraging. Also that means we can only attract either very young players, mediocre players or good players between late 20s and early 30s whose wages are dropping due to age and potential to play in the big clubs. (Also note that we are below the 70% threashold of wages vs turnove ration.) If wages are controlled we only have one way to go and that's to get better. I don't think our future is doomed but the club needs to maintain it's current policy of wage structure and invest in talent. It is regretable that good players with potential will be sold (see Smalling, Van de Saar, etc.) to make profit and bring cash in. That's life... unless
It's interesting to note the way the German League is run makes it one of the most self sustainable of all the Leagues. Our Premier is dependent on massive debts and Sky Sport money. I think I'm right in saying Bayern Munich out-do both Manchester United and Liverpool combined in their profit against debt. What would you say to UEFA only giving 2 Champions League places to English clubs, would it ruin the Premier League ?
The German comparison is a good one. It's also notable that German clubs are seen as much less of a force at the top end of European competition than they were in, say, the 1970s. I think most people would put the German league on a lower financial (and therefore footballing quality) level than England, Spain and Italy. I'm not sure that was the case when I was a lad. As for reducing the number of places, I still hanker for the days when the European Cup was just for national champions. I suspect that's another case of it being impossible to put the genie back in the bottle. The number of places allocated to each league is calculated on the basis of recent achievement (the infamous co-efficient). The 'rich get richer' effect make it harder for the top leagues to be displaced, and the top clubs will fight tooth and nail against any change that might make it harder for them to keep their permanent place on the gravy train. I suspect that UEFA know full well that if they push too hard to reverse the flow of money, the biggest clubs will start talking again about a breakaway European league. I suspect that the vested interests are too powerful for any meaningful change to happen in the forseeable future. The only way things will change is with a spectacular and messy bursting of the whole financial footballing bubble.
