Triesman attacks culture of debt among big clubs
Chairman angers PL over plans to act as regulator
The Football Association chairman, David Triesman, yesterday threatened to enforce a salary cap on England's leading clubs as part of a wide-ranging and often damning address on the game's finances.
Setting out the FA's plans to become a stricter regulator for football and placing himself on a collision course with the Premier League, Lord Triesman attacked an industry that he said had run up £3bn of debt, speaking of the "very tangible dangers" for the game at a time of much uncertainty in global finance.
"In the current climate it could be that we have to work out [wage] restraints and what they might be," he said during a speech to the Leaders in Football conference at Stamford Bridge. "A sensible form of [wage] restraint would make sense and it is not inconceivable. It's very hard to do anything unless all parties want to do it and everyone needs to want to do it. Preferably without being compelled."
Triesman's proposals will put the FA squarely at odds with the Premier League, particularly his ambitions for the governing body to become the English game's regulator. Senior government figures have this week been explicit that the FA's powers should be extended, and Uefa, the European governing body, is certain to offer support, having itself lobbied the European Commission to become football's statutory regulator.
Triesman set out an ambitious manifesto for reform of the game's regulatory structure. "I think we are too fragmented with too many bodies responsible for too many parts of the sport," he said. "Greater clarity is needed about who is responsible for the fitness and future of the game. A clear sports law could clarify the position. The time has come for a comprehensive sports law apportioning responsibility and accountability."
He also called for a strengthening of the fit-and-proper-persons test for club owners to include considerations of human-rights abuses alongside a prospective buyer's financial history. But most of his speech was given over to the volatility of the credit markets and its impact on English clubs. Triesman was referring to Manchester United when he talked of the "impenetrable instruments" of debt clubs have accrued. He said clubs must "decrease their indebtedness" by refinancing - although market conditions forbid most that luxury - or paying it down.
In response the Premier League's chief executive, Richard Scudamore, compared Triesman's aversion to debt with that of the Uefa president, Michel Platini, who Scudamore claimed "thinks all debt is bad". Scudamore instead believes that borrowings are sustainable if they are in keeping with revenues. Despite the biggest anomaly of Manchester United, whose debts are £666m, he pointed out that the ratio of debt to earnings at Premier League clubs is broadly 1.1:1.
But Scudamore was most strident in responding to Triesman's regulatory ambitions, insisting that the league should not yield to the whims of an organisation that is in some ways its commercial rival. "We are like competitors," he said. "We compete for sponsorship and for television rights and we are in the same space.
"The way it works here is tripartite. The Football League with its long reach, the Premier League with its different focus and different appeal and the FA all working together. If we draw three circles the overlap doesn't need to be huge."
FA ponders appeal
The FA may appeal against the paltry €14,000 fine Fifa handed Croatia last month. David Triesman will discuss it with Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter, after the racist abuse England's Emile Heskey suffered in Zagreb. Lord Triesman said: "We want to make sure that in the international system racist abuse is dealt with effectively."
No comments:
Post a Comment