General

There’s Breathtaking Hypocrisy, and Then There’s Roman Abramovich

Aug 28, 2009, 8:35 PM UTC

UEFA is shocked, shocked (!) that an oil-rich sheikh would have theâ†µnerve to buy a Barclay’s Premier League team -- Manchester City in thisâ†µcase, which has laid out 120 million pounds in this transfer windowâ†µalone -- and then try to buy its way into the Champions League. One man,â†µone noble man, isn’t going to take it anymore: â†µâ†µâ‡¥Chelsea’s billionaire owner Roman Abramovich is backing a UEFAâ†µâ‡¥proposal that would scupper the efforts of big-spending Manchester Cityâ†µâ‡¥to dominate English and European football. ... The Russian is backingâ†µâ‡¥[UEFA president Michel] Platini’s plan that proposes clubs can onlyâ†µâ‡¥spend what they earn in football revenues and that any club which doesâ†µâ‡¥not balance the books in the next three years could be kicked out ofâ†µâ‡¥European competitions.â†µâ†µâ†µAbramovich, of course, is basically the sheikh in question down toâ†µthe oil revenue. Take away the headdresses and add a lurking, mysteriousâ†µpast and the two would be indistinguishable apart from the fact thatâ†µAbramovich got there first. As the title says, the hypocrisy isâ†µmindboggling.â†µ

â†µ

â†µA number of big clubs are backing the legislation, including AC Milanâ†µand Inter, for an obvious reason: they're running out of spare funds andâ†µ"quot;don't want to fork over more," in the words of Platini. Milanâ†µwas reduced to snapping up free transfers like Oguchi Onyewu thisâ†µsummer, and the article notes that Abramovich limited Chelsea's spendingâ†µto 23 million pounds in response to the global credit crunch. The top ofâ†µthe pyramid is highly leveraged -- most of the Big Four in England are inâ†µmassive debt -- and has been hit hardest by said crunch; now they'reâ†µvulnerable and looking for a way to strengthen their death grip on theâ†µChampions League.â†µ

â†µâ†µWhile European football is in serious need of a way to balance theâ†µplaying field, this is not that; it’s a way to further calcify the topâ†µof the standings in leagues across Europe. (Leagues outside of Germany and France,â†µat least.) All in favor of further stratifying leagues in which you canâ†µpick out the same four (or fewer) title contenders year after year, raiseâ†µyour hand. That appears to be fans of those teams and those teams only.â†µ

â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

See More: