Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin plays down talk of a Europe-wide football salary cap

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin insisted he is not worried about the threat of the Saudi Pro League

(Getty Images)

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin has played down talk of a Europe-wide salary cap, suggesting that it could encourage players to move elsewhere, therefore having an adverse effect on the quality of football across the continent.

Salary caps have long been a discussion in football, although it is still a restriction largely confined to sports in the United States and North America as a whole.

The notion is that the cap acts as an equaliser, levelling the playing field and ensuring success does not simply follow those who can afford to spend the most money.

Uefa has consistently skirted around the issue, introducing rules in the summer of 2023 stating that by 2025 clubs’ spending on transfer fees and salaries must be no more than 70 percent of their revenue.

However, the question of whether players would follow the money and abandon European football for the likes of the high-spending Saudi Pro League remains to be seen, and even the Uefa president admitted it was not likely to be introduced soon.

Aleksander Ceferin, president of Uefa (Getty Images)

“It’s a difficult matter,” Ceferin said in an interview with The Guardian.

“One point of view is the legal part, where the EU is quite complicated about it. The second is that, with money now coming out of Europe, if you limit European clubs significantly it’s a question of competitiveness in the future.

“So we are not close with the salary cap. The small clubs don’t care about it, some of the big clubs want it and some don’t and the medium-sized ones want it. It’s quite an uncoordinated situation.”

Saudi Arabia has tempted away a number of Europe’s top players, including Karim Benzema, Sadio Mane, Neymar and Riyad Mahrez. Those all followed on from the flagship signing of Cristiano Ronaldo following the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

However, despite the financial enticements overseas, Ceferin does not view the budding league as a threat, saying: “I’m not worried about it. Again, I don’t think you can buy football.”

He added: “In England, I think the Saudi-owned club is a good example of how you should work. Because Newcastle didn’t buy superstars, yet they qualified for the Champions League.

“I was surprised: I expected them to buy many players for the new season, but it wasn’t the case and they played very well.

“So I don’t want only to be critical but for [the Pro League] to do it like that, it will not last long. It’s a waste of money.”

Ceferin remained in strong defence of European football, and there have been suggestions that he could run for the role as president of Uefa for a fourth term when his current one expires in 2027. That comes despite Zvonimir Boban quitting his role as chief of football over the proposal to change the limit of statutes to allow for someone in the role to stay beyond a third term.

The Uefa president claimed: “Football is by far Europe’s best product. The economy is going out of Europe but football stays here. We don’t want to be resistant to change, but we want to protect it as well.

“You can’t just buy a club and do whatever you want and then play in our competitions and pretend everything is find. We have mechanisms to safeguard the system and we’re trying to do our best.”