By Andrew Warshaw
July 6 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin believes a salary cap, which for many years has been widely debated in forums across European football, might be the only viable solution to stemming the increasing gap between the haves and have-nots.
Ceferin has frequently stated that European football’s governing body must do something to address competitive imbalance and told the Slovenian weekly publication Mladina: “The wealthiest clubs are only getting richer and the gap between them and the rest is getting bigger.
“In future, we will have to take into serious consideration the possibility of limiting clubs’ budgets for players’ wages.”
Such a radical move would doubtless lead to a sea change in the way clubs operate, not least in the transfer market, and represent the most far-reaching UEFA regulation since Ceferin’s predecessor Michel Platini introduced Financial Fair Play.
But, he says, it would potentially prevent the richest clubs from stockpiling players “who end up playing nowhere”.
“The introduction of a salary cap would force clubs to be more rational,” said Ceferin who admitted, however, that UEFA would face “a bit battle” to bring it about.
“Those who have the most money are the strongest and have the best connections in the media. It will be a big battle and winning it would in my opinion represent an historic change.”
Ceferin also says UEFA have no plans, unlike FIFA, to introduce video technology.
Use of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was nowhere near foolproof at the recent Confederations Cup where it was intended to be a dry run for next year’s World Cup.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino is convinced VARs are a positive step but Ceferin is not so sure.
“VAR will require a lot of testing to convince me,” he said. “We do not reject technology but UEFA has no plans yet to introduce the Video Assistant Referee. Granted, the goalline technology has panned out nicely despite its many critics.
“However, we must not destroy the game’s flow by letting the action get held up for several minutes every 10 minutes.”
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