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Reserve Team
Chelsea's domination of the Premier League through Roman Abramovich’s billions will be brought to an end by Europe’s football authorities because they fear that it is ruining football.
UEFA have decided that Chelsea’s multimillion- pound recruitment policy, which allows the club to bring in stars such as Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba every season because it is subsidised by Abramovich’s billions, amounts to unfair competition.
And UEFA chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson has told The Mail on Sunday that the greed of English clubs could destroy the game if new rules to limit wage bills are not introduced.
The rules would revolutionise the European game by ruling that Abramovich’s funding of Chelsea was like a state subsidising its nationalised industry, which is currently illegal in the European Union.
Olsson, who runs European football’s governing body, said: "I think Chelsea are a very special case. What we should do about it is a tricky question. Is it fair competition? Or should a football club accept getting these gifts or donations from individuals.
"When it comes to a case where an individual is prepared to lose money,I think it is a very special case. I agree it’s unfair to other clubs.
"To tackle it you have to agree within the football family and with the European Community to say that this is seen as unfair competition and that is why it’s against the rules."
That would mean an end to the unlimited transfer budget available to manager Jose Mourinho and to the spiralling wages that has seen Chelsea able to buy up any player they want, such as Shaun Wright- Phillips, even if they are apparently surplus to requirements.
It could also hinder the new investors in the Premiership, such as Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s company Dubai International Capital, who are attempting to take over Liverpool, and Newcastle United’s suitors Polygon, from copying Abramovich’s profligate ways.
Olsson and UEFA are backing proposals made recently by the Independent European Sports Review (IESR) to limit wages of a club to a proportion of their turnover.
It would mean that clubs could still pay a top player whatever they wanted, but that their overall wage bill would be limited by how much money they could actually generate.
Olsson said: "On wages, I’m not against having a relationship between salary and turnover or earned income. We’re going to the EU with these proposals. It would open the way to have better control of the costs. If we have some cases where the wages represent 110 per cent of the turnover in the club,we have to react."
European sports ministers are currently considering legislation on the proposals of the IESR, which was set up by British sports minister Richard Caborn and headed by Portuguese politician Jose Luis Arnaut.
The review’s recommendations, including wage control, were enthusiastically received by the 25 EU sports ministers, who met earlier this month, along with the European Culture Commissioner, Jan Figel from Slovakia, and thus have a strong chance of being accepted into European law in the next two years.
It would end Chelsea’s spendthrift policy, which has seen them spend £276 million on transfers in less than four years and announce losses amounting to £228m. But the proposals are opposed by the Premier League and its chief executive Richard Scudamore.
And Olsson has delivered a stinging critique of the Premiership, claiming it was dominated by greedy clubs and in danger of becoming as corrupt as Italy’s Serie A.
Olsson said: "His (Scudamore’s) comments opposing the proposals are disappointing. I think his views are very English, very Premier League. Everyone who sees what is going on understands you need a European approach.
"But I think his views are not that important as, if only one of the major leagues is against the proposals and all the others are positive, it’s not a major blow."
Olsson implied that if it continued on its current path, the Premier League could end up like Italian football, where last summer Juventus were relegated and AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio were all docked points for being involved in a match-fixing scandal that saw referees favour their teams.
On the Premiership, Olsson said: "The uneven distribution of wealth is one thing that needs to be addressed. The development we had in Italy could also happen in England.
"In Italy they had a system where the top three clubs were totally dominating everything, when it came to distributing money, when it came to the organisations, where they were occupying the seat as the head of the league and the seat of the head of the FA. They only made contracts for themselves.
"If this is happening in any country, including England, and some of the big clubs are only grabbing, grabbing, grabbing, there will be a counter-reaction.
"If you listen to the explanations of Juventus (in the recent matchfixing scandal), one of them was that this (fixing referees) is perfectly fine because we were only acting in the interests of our shareholders. If that kind of argument is being used on a sporting issue, then we are on very dangerous ground."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...all.html?in_article_id=423152&in_page_id=1779
UEFA have decided that Chelsea’s multimillion- pound recruitment policy, which allows the club to bring in stars such as Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba every season because it is subsidised by Abramovich’s billions, amounts to unfair competition.
And UEFA chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson has told The Mail on Sunday that the greed of English clubs could destroy the game if new rules to limit wage bills are not introduced.
The rules would revolutionise the European game by ruling that Abramovich’s funding of Chelsea was like a state subsidising its nationalised industry, which is currently illegal in the European Union.
Olsson, who runs European football’s governing body, said: "I think Chelsea are a very special case. What we should do about it is a tricky question. Is it fair competition? Or should a football club accept getting these gifts or donations from individuals.
"When it comes to a case where an individual is prepared to lose money,I think it is a very special case. I agree it’s unfair to other clubs.
"To tackle it you have to agree within the football family and with the European Community to say that this is seen as unfair competition and that is why it’s against the rules."
That would mean an end to the unlimited transfer budget available to manager Jose Mourinho and to the spiralling wages that has seen Chelsea able to buy up any player they want, such as Shaun Wright- Phillips, even if they are apparently surplus to requirements.
It could also hinder the new investors in the Premiership, such as Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s company Dubai International Capital, who are attempting to take over Liverpool, and Newcastle United’s suitors Polygon, from copying Abramovich’s profligate ways.
Olsson and UEFA are backing proposals made recently by the Independent European Sports Review (IESR) to limit wages of a club to a proportion of their turnover.
It would mean that clubs could still pay a top player whatever they wanted, but that their overall wage bill would be limited by how much money they could actually generate.
Olsson said: "On wages, I’m not against having a relationship between salary and turnover or earned income. We’re going to the EU with these proposals. It would open the way to have better control of the costs. If we have some cases where the wages represent 110 per cent of the turnover in the club,we have to react."
European sports ministers are currently considering legislation on the proposals of the IESR, which was set up by British sports minister Richard Caborn and headed by Portuguese politician Jose Luis Arnaut.
The review’s recommendations, including wage control, were enthusiastically received by the 25 EU sports ministers, who met earlier this month, along with the European Culture Commissioner, Jan Figel from Slovakia, and thus have a strong chance of being accepted into European law in the next two years.
It would end Chelsea’s spendthrift policy, which has seen them spend £276 million on transfers in less than four years and announce losses amounting to £228m. But the proposals are opposed by the Premier League and its chief executive Richard Scudamore.
And Olsson has delivered a stinging critique of the Premiership, claiming it was dominated by greedy clubs and in danger of becoming as corrupt as Italy’s Serie A.
Olsson said: "His (Scudamore’s) comments opposing the proposals are disappointing. I think his views are very English, very Premier League. Everyone who sees what is going on understands you need a European approach.
"But I think his views are not that important as, if only one of the major leagues is against the proposals and all the others are positive, it’s not a major blow."
Olsson implied that if it continued on its current path, the Premier League could end up like Italian football, where last summer Juventus were relegated and AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio were all docked points for being involved in a match-fixing scandal that saw referees favour their teams.
On the Premiership, Olsson said: "The uneven distribution of wealth is one thing that needs to be addressed. The development we had in Italy could also happen in England.
"In Italy they had a system where the top three clubs were totally dominating everything, when it came to distributing money, when it came to the organisations, where they were occupying the seat as the head of the league and the seat of the head of the FA. They only made contracts for themselves.
"If this is happening in any country, including England, and some of the big clubs are only grabbing, grabbing, grabbing, there will be a counter-reaction.
"If you listen to the explanations of Juventus (in the recent matchfixing scandal), one of them was that this (fixing referees) is perfectly fine because we were only acting in the interests of our shareholders. If that kind of argument is being used on a sporting issue, then we are on very dangerous ground."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...all.html?in_article_id=423152&in_page_id=1779
