Ceferin: “To put a ceiling on the expenses of the teams – Saudi Arabia is making the mistakes of China”

In an interview he gave to the Dutch website “Nos Sunday“, The Alexander Ceferin reported on huge Saudi investments in footballbut he did not seem particularly concerned about this phenomenon, mainly due to the age of the players who left Europe for the Arabian Peninsula.

“I think Saudi Arabia is making a mistake with domestic football. He is replicating China’s mistakes by recruiting players at the end of their careers. We haven’t lost Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi or Karim Benzema. They are still playing. But they are at the end of their career. At this stage of their career, many players go to clubs to earn money. But money isn’t everything. The best players want to win the best events and the best events are in Europe. Can you name a top player who went to Saudi Arabia at the peak or start of his career?“, noted the UEFA president.

Ceferin then explained his reasoning for it development of footballwhich is nothing like the… system followed by the Saudis, stating: “I think the Saudi leadership should probably invest in academies and coaches, but also develop their own players. The system of buying players at the end of their career is not a system that develops football».

Finally, the head of UEFA described one constant reflection within the European Football Association, “which is far from complete”, for to prevent the unlimited investment of certain funds. “We want to put a cap on a club’s wages and transfers. So you can spend, I don’t know, 500 million euros but not more, because we don’t want two or three teams that have unlimited funds to monopolize. Because the events will be interesting and everyone agrees on that“, he pointed out meaningfully.