[troutman]

Tough to stay enthused when the Big 4 dominate in revenues and player signings.

Michel Platini is actuallly suggesting today that European football institute a salary cap.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...&feed=football

Uefa is again seeking the help of Europe's political institutions to become a central regulator for football which could see the introduction of a continent-wide salary cap.

Its president, Michel Platini, will meet with the council of ministers for European affairs in Brest over the weekend and will outline his vision for a strengthened Uefa licensing system that would give football a greater degree of legal certainty in an attempt to reduce the instances of clubs challenging associations through the courts. With France taking up the presidency of the European Union over the next 12 months, Platini believes his project has a strong degree of success despite the independent sports review that was set up by his predecessor, Lennart Johansson, being scotched by the European Commission.

Platini is also attempting to convince football of the merits of the plan and at the inaugural meeting of the European Club Association yesterday he called on Europe's most successful teams to sign up to the stiffened licensing arrangements. "I'm not an authoritarian and whatever we do in terms of licensing, debt and salary caps will be implemented through the strategy council and members of the football family," Platini said, in a clear message that he accepts that with power would come added responsibility.

http://blog.canoe.ca/thefull90/2008/...lan_won_t_work

UEFA president Michel Platini means well. He really does. He's tried to reopen European soccer to the former communist nations. He's tried to erode the power of the G14 clubs. He's trying to get clubs to use more domestic talent.

Now, he'd like to see a salary cap adopted by leagues throughout Europe. According to UEFA's directive, the cap would see salaries limited to something like 55 to 60% of a club's revenues.

Like his other initiatives, the intentions are noble. And wholly unworkable. Platini wants to be the honest broker, but he's dealing with corruption on all sides. What good is a salary cap tied strictly to each club's revenue when European clubs are notorious for filing incomplete and inaccurate financial reports? If a club needs to break the cap, all it needs to do is fudge the books and, voila, all of a sudden the salaries are back in the 55-per-cent limit.