Blatter to Curb Billionaire Spending

FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, has expressed his anger at the growing trend of selling important Premier League clubs to foreign billionaires who have little or no interest in the development of professional football.

He has asked UEFA bosses to protect the economic potential of football by controlling investment and regulating the majority share holders of all European clubs.

Blatter frequently makes headlines with his outlandish comments (suggesting that female footballers should wear tighter shorts is one such example) but his latest proposal appears to have won the backing of both the European Committee for Culture and Sport and British fans who are unhappy with their favourite clubs being sold.

Unfortunately, Blatter is powerless to influence any active market without the might of the European Union firmly in his corner, and so his plans are unlikely to dethrone the financial Goliaths behind the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester United.

The former Prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, bore the brunt of Blatter’s discontent: “he goes back to his country and sells his club like you would sell a shirt.

You get people turning up with banker’s guarantees who are not interested in football and then they lose interest in the clubs and leave. What happens to the clubs then?” Blatter is hoping to stop European football clubs becoming trophies and playthings of the rich and famous.

Many of the clubs in the Premier League can survive on the sale of broadcasting rights to television companies, transfer funds, and gate receipts. A six or seven figure gift from the local billionaire is a luxury that few clubs actually need.

The plan is an addendum to Blatter’s controversial “6+5 system” whereby clubs must begin matches with a maximum of five foreign players, and whilst the scheme is designed to prevent billionaires from buying star players in bulk, critics have voiced concerns about the ‘culling’ of foreign players.

Under the new plans, many Premier League clubs may find themselves in the position of getting rid of players with little or no chance of staging a successful reconstruction within the space of a season.

The era of the rich owner has also had major implications for football management. Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich, famously upset ex-manager José Mourinho by encouraging him to purchase and play Andriy Shevchenko.

Kevin Keegan voiced similar concerns during his final days at Newcastle United: "It's my opinion that a manager must have the right to manage and that clubs should not impose upon any manager a player that he does not want."

Sepp Blatter wants to plug the gap between rich clubs and the minnows of the lower leagues before the Champions League becomes the sole domain of three or four clubs from each European country.

Premiership clubs are owned by nationals from seven different countries including Iceland (West Ham), America (Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Manchester United), and Egypt (Fulham) and their combined wealth totals hundreds of billions of pounds. Ultimately, more needs to be done to stop Premier League clubs becoming virtually invincible.

Written by Chris Illingworth