In the absence of any headline-grabbing “mega” deals, the major talking point with the football transfer window due to close in a few days, remains Manchester City’s attempts to lure Kaka away from AC Milan.
Rumours that the Brazilian would be joining City for a £100 million-plus fee, on wages of up to £500,000 a week, brought calls from Fulham chairman Mohamed Al-Fayed for the introduction of salary and transfer cap among top-flight clubs.
But Kevin Jones, head of the leading sports law team at Clarke Willmott, says there is “no appetite” in the game either for a limit on players’ salaries, or on the amount of money which can be paid between clubs in transfer fees.
Mr Jones says a salary cap is already in operation in top-flight rugby – and was failing to work - and that it stood little chance of success in football.
“Certainly the kind of figures being mentioned in association with Kaka were obscene in most people’s minds, particularly in the current economic climate,” commented Mr Jones.
“I cannot see the Premier League ever being interested in taking this on, and the example of Premiership rugby, where a salary cap has proved very difficult to police, does not bode well. You have 12 Guinness Premiership rugby sides operating a salary cap, yet only three clubs are likely to make a profit this season.
“If such a scheme is hard to implement among 12 top-flight rugby clubs it is not surprising there is no appetite for it among the leading clubs in football, where there has been a free market in operation for around 50 years. It would be impossible to say where a cap should be set and the players wouldn’t want it, the PFA wouldn’t want it and the agents wouldn’t want it.
“In addition we must not forget that the top English clubs operate on a world stage and wouldn’t want to put themselves at a competitive disadvantage compared with their European counterparts, for example. Therefore it is also very doubtful that the leading European clubs will have an appetite for these restrictions.”
Mr Jones added that any fundamental change to the wage and transfer system among English football clubs would bring the sport more into line with the US.
“What Mr Al-Fayed is arguing for would completely transform English football into something more like the franchise system in the US, where sport is actually far more regulated than it is in this country,” he said.
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