Italian Premier and AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi made some very interesting comments earlier this week about why football needs a salary cap.
“Footballers’ salaries are outside reality. It is necessary to introduce a salary cap,” Berlusconi was quoted as saying by Italian media on Tuesday. “They are unacceptable, distant from the real economy in which we live in a difficult time like this. They are outside every parameter.”
Berlusconi went on to say that he had discussed this idea with UEFA President Michel Platini:
“I think we should do like they do in the United States and reach a decision for a law to have a salary cap throughout Europe,” he said. “I’ve spoken to Platini and I think we’ll work in this direction very soon.”
UEFA’s communications chief Rob Faulkner is not a fan of the idea as he commented:
“We have studied the issue and it is practically impossible from a legal point of view to impose caps on the salaries of individual players,” Faulkner told the ANSA news agency.
Italian Football Federation vice president Demetrio Albertini is also against the idea saying:
“We should stop blaming the footballers all the time. The issue is the system, not the players,” the former Milan and Italy midfielder said. “The players earn what the club presidents offer them.”
It is an interesting that the leader of Italy should want to impose a salary cap on players. It works with the NFL in the U.S. because the players are organized as a union, and the union agreed to a salary cap through collective bargaining. No such players union exists in Europe and to impose a salary cap would be against current European law.
What do you think of the idea?
