There have been some big headlines in England as the January window comes to a close. In New York Yankee style, Manchester City tried to buy legendary AC Milan midfielder Kaka for £108 million with a weekly salary of half a million pounds. If this transfer was successful, it would have been the biggest and most expensive move in the Premier League...ever. The closest to the £108 million offer was Real Madrid’s offer of £48.1 million for Zinédine Zidane in 2001! Manchester has made a lot of moves during this trade window to acquire players like De Jong (17m), Wayne Bridge, and Craig Bellamy (14m). Man City is still in talks and may yet acquire a few more players before the window closes.
With all of this attention on Man City and multi-millionaire/billionaire owners, less fortunate teams like Fulham are calling for a salary cap. Like in the NFL, NBA, and NHL, the Premier League may fall under some sort of cap. Currently, Chelsea and Manchester City are owned by billionaire oil tycoons. Roman Abramovich, Chelsea FC owner, has invested over £500 million in the team. One of the major concerns is that teams that have billionaire owners will throw their money around and offer huge contracts to star players, or corner the free agent market. On Chelsea’s team alone you have some amazing star talent from all over the world. Michael Ballack, German national captain; John Terry, English national captain; Petr Cech, considered one of the best goalies in the world, hails from the Czech Republic; Ashley Cole, Joe Cole, Frank Lampard are all English national team regulars; Didier Drogba, star Ivorian national team striker; and a scattered array of other national team stars. Chelsea is fortunate to have all of these players, but if any salary cap was imposed, the Blues would have to sell off some, if not most of these players.
By throwing a lot of money around, the Premier League has been dominated by the Big 4: Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea. They have been able to attract the best players in the business and be able to afford their giant price tags. This has caused an imbalance in the league. After every season, the bottom 3 teams are relegated or demoted to the league below their current league, while the top 3 teams are promoted to the league above theirs, all in an effort to keep the different leagues in England competitive and interesting. Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool have never graced the lower level leagues since the creation of the league system due in part to the thick wallets these teams possess. A hard cap could possibly increase the competitiveness of the league, or backfire and make all of these stars go to the abroad leagues. This is a tough issue that the FA is considering.
Another big concern for the league is the possibility that these owners will write off their current losses and abandon their team, leaving the team with a huge debt and possible bankruptcy. Currently, Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are trying to sell their shares in the club. Yes, the same Tom Hicks who owns the Texas Rangers and the same George Gillett who has investments in NASCAR. They are seeking to sell Liverpool to the Al-Kharafi family, whose net worth is in the £8 billion range. If this deal goes down, then Liverpool could join the ranks of Manchester City and Chelsea as having billionaire owners. However, Chelsea is still holding their breath after their current owner, Roman Abramovich, was offered a substantial amount of money to sell the club. So who is the interested buyer? The same billionaires that own Manchester City. There is big concern in the Premier League if this deal goes through. However, at this point in time, Abramovich seems to be content as the owner of the Blues…but everyone has their price, at least according to the Manchester City’s owners. We will see how this plays out, especially if Chelsea does not come away with any hardware this season.
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