From the Evening Standard
Chelsea will be forced to slash their spending on players by a drastic £100mil a year under new regulations proposed by UEFA.
As litesport revealed in September, Europe’s governing body has been working with sports ministers on introducing legal measures to curb the spending of all of the continent’s rich clubs in a bid to make football more competitive.
The radical new proposal will aim to narrow the gap between rich and poor clubs and stop teams like Chelsea running up massive losses to buy up the best players.
UEFA plan to introduce a regulation limiting clubs to spending a maximum of 70 per cent of annual turnover on players wages and transfer fees. In Chelsea case this would mean cutting last years bill on players and salaries from £210mil to £102mill.
The ruling would have a devastating impact on the spending at Chelsea who splashed out £276mil on buying players and made losses of £228mil since Roman A bought the club in 2004. Even by removing the transfer fees and salaries of Didier Drogba (signed for £24mil and earning £60,00 per week) Michael Ballack (free transfer a £2mill signing on fee and £130,000 a week) and Andriy Shevchenko (£30mil fee and £118,000 a week), Chelsea would only reduce the current bill by £72mil.
UEFA are determined to bring practical economics back to football in a bid to stop what they are calling an “arms race” in spending on players.
UEFA communications director William Gallard today said “This is not just aimed at one club. It covers clubs from Chelsea and Real Madrid to clubs in the second division. A lot of members of the European Parliament want more drastic action like a salary cap but that is not practical. We don’t just want one or two clubs capable of winning leagues, we want eight to ten.”
As litesport revealed in September, Europe’s governing body has been working with sports ministers on introducing legal measures to curb the spending of all of the continent’s rich clubs in a bid to make football more competitive.
The radical new proposal will aim to narrow the gap between rich and poor clubs and stop teams like Chelsea running up massive losses to buy up the best players.
UEFA plan to introduce a regulation limiting clubs to spending a maximum of 70 per cent of annual turnover on players wages and transfer fees. In Chelsea case this would mean cutting last years bill on players and salaries from £210mil to £102mill.
The ruling would have a devastating impact on the spending at Chelsea who splashed out £276mil on buying players and made losses of £228mil since Roman A bought the club in 2004. Even by removing the transfer fees and salaries of Didier Drogba (signed for £24mil and earning £60,00 per week) Michael Ballack (free transfer a £2mill signing on fee and £130,000 a week) and Andriy Shevchenko (£30mil fee and £118,000 a week), Chelsea would only reduce the current bill by £72mil.
UEFA are determined to bring practical economics back to football in a bid to stop what they are calling an “arms race” in spending on players.
UEFA communications director William Gallard today said “This is not just aimed at one club. It covers clubs from Chelsea and Real Madrid to clubs in the second division. A lot of members of the European Parliament want more drastic action like a salary cap but that is not practical. We don’t just want one or two clubs capable of winning leagues, we want eight to ten.”