Rummenigge calls for European salary cap to thwart Chelsea

[Cunny]

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,1766803,00.html

 

Rummenigge calls for European salary cap to thwart Chelsea

 

Matt Scott in Brussels

Thursday May 4, 2006

The Guardian

 

 

Bayern Munich's president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge yesterday condemned Chelsea for their "unacceptable" lack of budgetary controls. Addressing a European parliamentary debate where he was called as an expert witness on the structure of European football, Rummenigge attacked the spending of Roman Abramovich's club, claiming it distorts the sporting value of European competition.

 

Chelsea's budget this summer will include what is believed to be the offer of a £121,000-per-week contract to secure the services of Bayern's influential midfielder Michael Ballack, a development that no doubt helped incite Rummenigge's comments. "We have a ?200m [£137.213m] turnover and Chelsea, who as everyone knows are owned by Roman Abramovich, have [a comparable] turnover [of £146.60m]," said Rummenigge.

 

"We make a ?35m profit; this is required for our investment. Chelsea lost ?204m; Mr Abramovich obviously stumped up for it. This [makes for] unequal competition but we are playing against each other in the Champions League. This is not acceptable."

Though Chelsea, who followed up their unprecedented £140m loss over the 12-month accounting period to June 2005 with a second successive title this season, are clearly associated with the enormous sums spent on salaries and transfer fees, the Premiership champions responded indignantly, justifying the Abramovich-era expenditure by intimating they are merely catching up with the investment of competitor clubs.

 

"It is total nonsense to suggest that this is somehow uncompetitive or unequal," said Chelsea's director of communications Simon Greenberg. "There are clubs who have spent more than Chelsea in the last 10 years.

 

"There are clubs who are not as transparent as Chelsea with regard to their finances. It is our publicly stated position that we will try and break even in 2010 and thereafter hopefully make profits. Football is a free market and to suggest our position is not acceptable is ludicrous.

 

"These comments may have been made in order to play up to this particular audience or because of other issues surrounding our two clubs at the moment."

 

The reference to Ballack as the "other issue" was clear, although the qualified comments about making profits from 2010-11 hint that this has now become an aspirational target to which the club would prefer not to be held hostage.

 

Fiscal openness is something Europe's parliamentarians intend to roll out across Europe in an attempt to close down opportunities for corruption and tax evasion in the game. The parliament also appeared receptive to the Bayern president's proposal to introduce a Europe-wide salary cap that would ensure the restriction of clubs' permissible outlay.

 

"We could have a salary cap: when a big proportion of turnover is spent on wages clubs are going to be in the red," said Rummenigge. "We should have an overall salary budget capped at, say, 50% of turnover. Across Europe there should be harmonisation. 80 to 85% of professional clubs in Europe are losing money. The pressure of competition leads to misinterpretation."

 

Rummenigge was also speaking as a representative of the G14 group of clubs -of which Chelsea are not a member - and reiterated the stance of the organisation that the self-appointed elite clubs should benefit from perpetual participation in Europe's premier club competition.

 

Though he stopped short of demanding a breakaway closed league, Rummenigge said that since Bayern Munich have "taken part in the Champions League on 12 occasions it is fair that there should be a body where participation is guaranteed [for certain clubs]".

[Bailo]

There has been an imbalance in budgets in football for years, Rummenigge is just bitter he's the latest club to lose someone they wanted to keep to Chelsea.

[Cobs]

There has been an imbalance in budgets in football for years, Rummenigge is just bitter he's the latest club to lose someone they wanted to keep to Chelsea.

exactly - didn't give a schit when they took Ballack from Leverkusen, did he?

[Dominus Maximus]

Rummenigge calls for European salary cap to thwart Chelsea

 

Why don't just call Benitez?

[mally]

he wouldn't be saying that if the russian had gone to bayern though would he

[boohog]

Rummenigge calls for European salary cap to thwart Chelsea

 

Why don't just call Benitez?

 

Because his salary would be too high.

[aka Dus]

You can be sure that he is speaking on behalf of G14 too.

 

And the fact that he is speaking to the EU, who have committed to the 'specificity of sport' means there could well be more to this story than many Chelsea lovers might hope.

 

[Ramón Benítez Hernández]

They have a salary cap over here in the NRL (National Rugby League) and if I'm not mistaken, seven different teams have been Champions in the last eight years.

 

I'm not saying it should be introduced into football, coz I can't see it working, but that's my 2.4 cents worth.

[realtarragona]

I think it's quite pathetic how clubs are kicking up a fuss about Chelsea and money, particularly those who have spent years being able to outbid most other clubs. Like us, for example.