UEFA President to Begin Talks to Restore 'Financial Competitive Balance' to Football

Aleksander Ceferin, the President of UEFA has revealed talks will soon begin to start curbing excessive finances in football, which could lead to a salary cap

Aleksander Ceferin, the President of UEFA has revealed talks will soon begin to start curbing excessive finances in football, which could lead to a salary cap as well as limits on agents’ fees.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Ceferin said that his end goal is to stop the world’s richest clubs 'signing all the best players' and restore some ‘competitive balance’ to football’s current financial climate.

We are delighted to announce the signing of @Alexis_Sanchez from Arsenal.

Full details: https://t.co/nUitNnNbV9 pic.twitter.com/S3ft22e7Jo

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 22, 2018

With Alexis Sanchez’s arrival at Manchester United making him the highest paid footballer in the history of English football (with reports of his salary going as high as £500k-a-week), Ceferin confirmed that measures would be discussed with key stakeholders including a “luxury tax”, where clubs would be fined for exceeding a specific wage limit.

He further explained that the money raised from this tax could potentially be evenly spread to that club’s rivals or put into “social responsibility programmes.”

He also revealed his intentions to impose a limit on the number of players a team could own or sign on loan, which if implemented would signal the end of teams like Chelsea hoarding a vast number of players and perpetually loaning them out rather than selling them to rivals.

A major part of Ceferin’s is to create a licensing system to remove some of the power currently held by players’ agents.

He explained how clubs who claimed they were being ‘held as hostages’ by agents had been told to pay the agent(s) in question 50% of the transfer fee or lose the opportunity to sign that player. 

David Ramos/GettyImages

Alternatively, he said some clubs have been strong-armed into package deals, where players all under the same agent are effectively imposed onto a club.

“This situation now is the worst,” he said, “because, you can be, if I exaggerate, a killer and still be an agent.”