UEFA's president Aleksander Ceferin recently announced proposed changes to the football transfer system to stop the wealthiest clubs in Europe's biggest leagues from 'hoarding' the best players.
Policies including a 'luxury tax' on rich clubs and squad limits are aimed to increase the level of competition and prevent the best clubs from dominating the game.
At a conference in Lisbon, Ceferin said, 'UEFA has a duty to protect the whole of football and not just the elite. We need to assess whether the transfer market is the best we can do. We cannot be afraid to touch it. We do have to examine new mechanisms like luxury taxes and in particular sporting criteria like squad limitations and fair transfer rules, avoiding player hoarding'.
Many people have long complained about the dominance of the top teams in some of Europe's main leagues, including in the Premier League (UK), La Liga (Spain), Ligue 1 (France) and the Bundesliga (Germany). In La Liga for example, 13 championship titles in the last 16 years have been won by either Real Madrid or Barcelona. In the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich have won the title 10 times in the last 16 years and Paris Saint-Germain have won 4 Ligue 1 titles in the last 4 years.
In addition, according to a BBC article, some of Europe's smaller leagues have complained about big teams signing up their best players at a young age, only to immediately send them on loan elsewhere.
Chelsea for example, had more than 30 players out on loan earlier this season, whilst Italian champions Juventus currently have more than 50 players loaned out.
Ceferin is yet to give further details on what the luxury taxes or fair transfer rules could look like in practice, but I think any change to the status quo to help football become beneficial for everyone involved should always be welcomed.
After all, the slogan for FIFA (world football's governing body) is, 'For the Game. For the World'. Not just the elite few.
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