UEFA vows transfer system reform

Baku. 23 March. REPORT.AZ/ The UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin, believes European football should consider more restraints on spending, squad limits and changes to the transfer system to stop rich clubs from dominating.

Report informs, Ceferin said as he was speaking at the Football Talks conference in Lisbon that globalisation and technology had opened up exciting markets for Europe’s clubs but this had increased the risks to the game’s competitive balance.

He said: “The great opportunities brought by technology giving access to everyone, anywhere, at any time, on a scale unimaginable 10 years ago and with interaction not fathomed five years ago, can also bring dangers if we are not careful.

“UEFA needs to be prepared to appropriately tackle relevant issues such as the decrease in competitive balance within European club competitions and secondary effects affecting domestic competitions.”

“We cannot allow the greatness of some to overshadow and drown out the rest. If we allow gaps to become too great we will be neglecting those who have little opportunities. We face a threat that the bottom becomes unstable because the rest of the world is focused on the top.”

The former president of the Slovenian FA added UEFA would “have to examine new mechanisms like luxury taxes, squad limitations and fair transfer rules to avoid player hoarding and the excessive concentration of talent within a few teams”.