One hundred and three European clubs were invited to the newly formed European Club Association, based on UEFA rankings, but Arsenal didn’t have any representation there, according to a couple of papers.
Liverpool’s Rick Parry and Chelsea’s Peter Kenyon are on the newly formed board of 15, but then the Liverpool Post says Chelsea didn’t have any representatives at the meeting either, while the Times says Man U, Liverpool and Chelsea were there.
The meeting at UEFA headquarters in Geneva emphasised the groups stance against Sepp Blatter’s 6+5 proposal which would limit clubs to fielding just five foreign players at the start of a match. They favour UEFA’s ‘home-grown’ plan, which is already in force in the Champions League, which requires every club squad to include a minimum number of locally trained players.
The meeting provided an opportunity for individual clubs to privately discuss their transfer targets for the new season.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, boss of Bayern Munich, was voted in as chairman – and will no doubt support the salary cap efforts of UEFA President Michel Platini who is meeting with the Council of Ministers for European Affairs to push for a strenghtened licensing system. It aims to bolster football associations against legal challenges from clubs. And with France having the Euro-Presidency there is a better chance.
Platini said: “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.” The Premier League is against a stricter licensing regime.
Meanwhile a paragraph in the Mirror, is important, if true. It said: “On July 1, Wenger was given a pot of £90m to spend on his squad. That was not a transfer fund, but the global amount, to be spent on new players, squad wages, and agents’ fees. If he wants to spend more, then he has to sell.” Wages were around £68m in the last accounts, so no wonder with improved contracts for Clichy, and Fabregas etc, along with Nasri and Ramsey fees, Wenger said he wanted only two more quality players.
Ex-vice-chairman, David Dein, warned: “Will Arsene keep on unearthing nuggets in the transfer market? He has got to! Chelsea spend on average £1.5m per point – if they get 80 points in a season, they have probably spent £120m to get those purely on wages. Their wage bill is between £120-130m.
“Arsenal get, say, 70 points and they have spent £70m on wages – it’s £1m a point. Manchester United have 85 points, that’s about £1.25m a point.” Hmmm, Arsenal got 83 points to Chelsea’s 85 points.
Dein has doubts over the income from the Highbury Square residential development. “At Arsenal, something has to break. Nothing lasts for ever. The board, because of their age – and a couple of them are not well – will change.” [He would say that wouldn’t he.]
Unless of course Platini is successful which could change things anyway.