Bayern President Demands European Salary Cap
Bayern Munich president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has called for a Europe-wide salary cap to help bring an end to the unnatural domination of the transfer market by Chelsea and their big spending sugar daddy Roman Abramovich.
Rummenigge pointed to the fact that Bayern Munich turned over a similar amount to Chelsea last year but made a £25m profit whereas Chelsea were able to lose £140m and have their spending tab picked up by their Russian owner, thereby giving them an edge against all other clubs in European competition.
Rummenigge has said he would like a salary cap set at 50% of club’s turnover to enable a more level playing field where even massive clubs like Bayern Munich wouldn’t be as likely to have their best players poached and lured away by the promises of untold riches in West London in the way that Michale ballack seems to have been.
There can be no denying that the money that flowed into the European game during the 1990s destroyed the competitive nature and fabric of European competition completely and with Chelsea and Abramovich’s millions going one step further it has further widened the gulf.
What Rummenigge fails to talk about though is the domination his own club and the rest of their G14 friends enjoy compared to other clubs both in their own domestic leagues and in Europe as a result of their Champion’s League money frenzies and how it’s only when they themselves are the victims of a bigger playground bully taking their players that they speak out against it.
I do agree with Rummenigge however and would like to see a salary cap of some kind introduced to help bring the level of competitiveness back into European football. The money has ruined it at the top level and any measure that helps take the potential for distortion out of the transfer market has to be seriously looked into and supported.
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4 opinions for Bayern President Demands European Salary Cap
Bald Man
May 4, 2006 at 7:44 pm
The NFL can be taken as a fair model for the good of a salary cap. It’s much harder for a team to be perpetually good. The turnover (in the sense of who’s on top from year to year) leads to greater support across the whole of the league.
Arizona being the exception that proves the rule.
Alan
May 4, 2006 at 7:47 pm
I’ll bow to your superior NFL knowledge on this one Cory but it’s one sporting organisation that has long been held up in Europe as being the obvious model for a salary cap.
The thing I’ve found interesting with this latest call for a cap is that it has came from the top of one of the biggest clubs in the world who has found that even they can be outmuscled in the money stakes. How long before other big European clubs jump on the same bandwagon to defend their own status quo?
Harry
May 5, 2006 at 12:44 am
Someone should remind Mr. Rummenigge when Bayern Munchen signed Michael Ballack, and paid higher wages for him, it was then all success and glory. Now, MB wants out and Chelsea is preparedt to match his expectation, suddenly salary cap become the solution. Get real all sour loosers in UK, Europe, and north America. You are all the victims of your own devious devices. We live in an era of predatory capitalism,and it is here to stay till all you hypocrite,particularly the Americans,learn that those who live by the sword, shall be judged by the sword
The Footie » Just What The Premiership Needs, Another Superstar At Chelsea
May 15, 2006 at 10:44 am
[...] Not only can they snap up most of the domestic talent by paying extraordinary fees and wages, they prove, perhaps for the first time since Abramovich took over, that they can turn the heads of the world’s top players and prise them easily away from the top clubs in Europe. It’s little wonder that Karl-Heinz Rummenigge objected so strongly to their practices recently and demanded a Europe wide salary cap to protect pretty much all clubs but Chelsea from the marauding West London hordes. [...]
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