Paris (AFP)

Cap the wages of footballers, "worthy of another planet"? This regulatory measure, applied by many leagues in the United States, could have seduced Europe in football after a health crisis that left clubs bloodless, but its opponents remain in the majority.

Deprived of revenue during the cessation of competitions, the clubs dragged like a ball a very heavy payroll, revealing the fragility of a system exposed to external jolts.

"Some sectors have several months of cash in advance and / or equity that allows them to temporarily cash in on a crisis as we live it", but not football, summarizes Christophe Lepetit, economist at the Center for Law and 'economics of sport (CDES).

Faced with this observation, the world of football is divided into two categories: those who campaign for better regulation and those who rely on the law of the market.

Fritz Keller ranks among the first. "We have to talk about salary caps," thundered the president of the German Federation (DFB) in mid-May, calling on UEFA to limit wages that are "partly worthy of another planet".

In France, the elite financial policeman also wanted to "build stronger football, therefore economically healthy". "This means initiating a reflection on a cap on the payroll and / or on the number of players under contract," said Jean-Marc Mickeler, president of the DNCG, in the daily Les Echos.

- UEFA remains cautious -

In the United States, closed leagues such as basketball, ice hockey or baseball have established a "salary cap" which can be "soft" (possibility of exceeding the ceiling for some players) or "hard" (a tax sanctions all crossing ).

"We are thinking of a kind of + luxury tax +, if possible," UEFA president Alexander Ceferin cautiously slipped in an interview with the Guardian in May. The European confederation "is currently studying various options" including this "tax" and "will consult with the various stakeholders in the coming months", added a spokesman to AFP.

"UEFA finds itself caught between the hammer and the anvil", between supporters and opponents of regulation, and this "balancing act" is currently leading it to status quo, analyzes Christophe Lepetit.

For the economist, the body based in Nyon can fear a sling of the powerful in the event of reform deemed too strict. "The risk is that there will be a secession and that five, ten or twenty big clubs decide to create their own competition, backed by an investment fund that would not fail to arrive," he said.

- "Not very serious" for Kita -

In order to set up a salary cap, UEFA should in any case make it compliant with European Union law and applicable in the United Kingdom, where there are several of the wealthiest clubs in Europe. And convince the skeptics.

To impose it is to go "against democracy, against capitalism. We are not going to make a professional league, let’s say capitalist, and at the same time limit wages. It would not be very serious", cowardly to AFP Waldemar Kita, the owner of FC Nantes.

"We must not forget that the career of a footballer lasts between 8 and 10 years", that they must earn "enough to eat for 50 years", supports the Franco-Polish leader, also opposed "to the capping of the payroll because you have to be liberal. "

In Spain, the president of the League Javier Tebas also cut short the debate.

"It is something that is not feasible, something that even the AFE (main union of Spanish footballers) does not think to negotiate to go against the rights of its own workers," he said. he recently claimed.

In fact, if there is reform, it will have to bring together all the families of football, from Fifa to UEFA through the world players' union (Fifpro) and the powerful clubs of Europe united within the 'ECA.

And in case of shared will, it will remain to define the contours of an instrument of economic regulation which, if it is badly conceived, "could generate perverse effects", according to Mr. Lepetit.

Capping the payroll can lead to high inflation of transfer prices, as well as a "rise in wage inequality" within clubs which serve "first their star players before the others", warns the economist.

The introduction of a salary cap "will not solve all the problems of professional sport", it is necessary to have "a global approach" where wage regulation is only one tool among others to clean up the environment, concludes -he.

pve-fga-ryj-jta / jed / ole

© 2020 AFP