And so it begins…
No one needs a reminder about the impact that Chelsea and Roman Abramovich’s spending power has had on football, nor the rather heated debates that have surround the subject.
But it seems that UEFA, EU sports ministers and rival clubs are now sufficiently scared to do something about it and Sports Minister Richard Caborn attended a meeting in brussels to discuss new regulations to prevent Chelsea, and similarly bankrolled clubs, from knocking the sport off kilter,
He said: “There is support for the idea of introducing a better relationship between income earned by clubs and the amounts spent.”
The full details of the meeting and UEFA’s plan has been nicely written up by the Daily Mail.
It’ll be interesting to find out how much of this ends up being just bullish talk, and what the real impact any new rules will have not only on Chelsea but also other big spenders domestically and abroad. If Chelsea are prevented from digging into Abramovich’s pockets, it could mean a firesale of players and skyrocketing prices for supporters. But somehow we doubt UEFA would put anything into place that immediately castrated the London club.
Manchester United, Portsmouth, Liverpool, Aston Villa and West Ham all either taken over or the subject of takeover rumors in the past few years and while, with the exception of Portsmouth, most are probably spending according to revenue earned they will likely join Chelsea in waiting eagerly for whatever crazy, crazy regulations UEFA decide to come up with.