Cut the Daily Mail Xenophobia - Platini is right

The English and the French are often more similar than we like to think. Two relatively conservative countries with a middle class that reveres the other and a working class that despises the other, England and France are hardly chalk and cheese. I spent ten years living in France, watching them sneak in and out of Marks & Spencer with their tea and biscuits, and openly declare their love of English football.

Even Michel Platini, the man who is stoking up so much anti-French resentment at the moment, is a huge fan of the English game. If you read the Sun or the Mirror, you might not have realised to what extent Platini is such an anglophile, yet he is.

He loves the way we follow the sport, the style of English football, the way it is broadcast, and our stadia. What he doesn't like - and what many of us dislike - is the brazen greed of the English game, and as the UEFA President, he is prepared to do something about it.

Here's what Platini is thinking of doing:

• Introducing a salary cap
• Restricting squad sizes
• A reform of the transfer system - one player can play for one club per season

Now, introducing a salary cap (dependent on turnover) requires a bit more thought - Manchester United as a worldwide brand, would obviously be able to pay higher wages than, for example, West Brom. This would not reduce inequality in the game, which is Platini's stated aim.

Reforming the transfer system would be plain daft, as it is inflexible enough at the moment with the transfer window, and as these rules cannot apply to domestic leagues but only to UEFA competitions, you'll see that it already applies when a player is cup-tied.

Details aside, Platini is right about making the game more "moral" and "fair". Is it really fair that a Sheikh can offer £100m for Kaka instead of offering £100m to fund a youth development scheme that would produce Mancunian Kakas by the shedload? (It may, it may not...). And what happens when the Sheikh has had enough of Manchester City and permanent failure? Platini aims to take the game out of the hands of the moneymen. All he has to do is ask a business man how to do it.

The United States could provide inspiration. The NFL and the NHL have salary caps, and our own Rugby Premiership has a salary cap. However, if Platini really wants parity, the game could move towards a franchise model, which would take it away from its roots, and has already proved highly unpopular with Milton Keynes Dons.

Platini's responsibility is towards the future of the game, and you have to look no further than Serie A to see where the Premier League may one day head. Just as doomsayers were pilloried for predicting that the financial boom would turn to bust, Platini is pilloried for believing that the Premier League boom may not continue forever. Serie A in its heyday was watched all around the world, with stadia filled to capacity and Italia 90 the high point for the game in Italy. What happened next was a steady decline. Violence in the grounds, disputes over television rights, financial misdeeds and declining standards in the game all contributed to Serie A's downfall. And everyone assumed the boom would continue forever.

It only takes a few 'Black Swan' events, even minor ones, and the Premier League could find its bubble burst. A few billionnaires pull out, a club goes under, no buyers can be found, and the financial irresponsibility of others becomes financial catastrophe in a series of knock-on events. And that is what Platini wants to prevent - not just in England, but across Europe. And in that respect, the Free Bet Bookmaker is right behind Platini.

published: 6th February 2009 by Free Bet Bookmaker

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