Blatter unhappy at Premier League spending

FIFA PRESIDENT Sepp Blatter is still trying to find a way of curbing the Premier League’s spending power.

Although the indications are Manchester City will fail in their efforts to lure Samuel Eto’o away from Barcelona, Blatter remains deeply troubled at the migration of talent to England.

It could be pointed out Real Madrid are the ones who have done the big spending this summer, twice smashing the world transfer fee record, first to buy Kaka, then Cristiano Ronaldo, who will cost an amazing €94m from Manchester United.

However, Blatter views the method of owning clubs in England as inherently unsatisfactory, putting the Premier League at an advantage compared to European counterparts.

“There are big associations, like France, Germany and Spain where there is a by-law that the owners of the club must be at least 51% from the club,” said Blatter.

“They must be members of the club or partners from the same country. This does not exist in the Premier League and it is a problem we have to address.”

Yet Blatter is currently at a loss as to how exactly he will achieve his aims, given UK law will not be changed to implement the same ownership rules that exist in other countries.

“We, the whole FIFA family, is aware of this. We have spoken before about financial fair play. Financial fair play is not only a licensing system and financing control but financing fair play means also that all participants should observe fair play.”

The FIFA president, meanwhile, believes that South Africa is 75% ready to host next year’s World Cup finals.

Addressing a press conference in Johannesburg to reflect on the Confederations Cup, which ended on Sunday, the chief of the world game praised the organisers, but said more needed to be done ahead of Africa’s first staging of the global showpiece.

“I can say that the rehearsal from the FIFA point of view has been satisfactory,” he said. “We are on the very positive side when we go to do an assessment.

“One of the items that has always been put into question was that of security. The organising committee, with Danny Jordaan as chief executive, have done a very good job.

“We know that some of the logistics like transport and accommodation, will have to be worked on.

“Accessing the work that has been done on a scale of 1-10, I would say that you are at 7.5. This is before the beginning of the next activity, which is the draw.

“If you pass that, then it could be eight and at the end of the World Cup, you could be at 10. This is my assessment.”