UEFA "will consider introducing squad limits and changes to the transfer system to prevent European teams hoarding players and stem the growing gap between rich and poor clubs," UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin said on Wednesday, according to Brian Homewood of REUTERS. The Slovenian lawyer said that UEFA needed to address a "decrease in competitive balance" within European club football. Europe's smaller leagues complain that "big teams cream off their players at a young age, only to immediately send them on loan elsewhere," while the likes of Eredivisie side Ajax and Portuguese first-division club Benfica, "once major powers, have effectively become feeder clubs." Čeferin said, "We do have to examine new mechanisms like luxury taxes and, in particular, sporting criteria like squad limitations and fair transfer rules, to avoid player hoarding and excessive concentration of talent within a few teams. We do need to assess whether the transfer market as it operates today is the best we can do. We cannot be afraid to touch it." Čeferin "did not give any further details on what he meant by luxury taxes," but added that UEFA could work with FIFA to change the transfer market or "do so via its own licensing regulations" (REUTERS, 3/22).
