European sports ministers weigh up transfer limits
Clubs could face limits on how much they can spend on players’ wages and transfers under a plan being considered by the game’s leaders and European sports ministers.
The possibility of a Europe-wide salary cap for clubs has been abandoned but new rules could be brought in that would tie a club’s expenditure to their income.
Sports minister Richard Caborn, who attended a meeting in Brussels yesterday of ministers and EU officials, told the Evening Standard: “There is support for the idea of introducing a better relationship between income earned by clubs and the amounts spent.”
The discussions are at their early stages but it would mean clubs would not be allowed to spend more than they earn on transfer fees and players’ wages.
They would however be allowed to borrow for capital investments such as new stadia or training grounds.
Clubs with mega-rich owners such as Chelsea would be hard hit – in the first two years of Roman Abramovich’s ownership they reported losses of £228million and spent £276million on transfers alone.
The meeting gave initial backing to some proposals which will now be formalised in the current review of European football being carried out by Jose Luis Arnaut, a former presidency minister in the Portuguese government.
