Al-Fayed calls for salary cap

Fulham owner Mohamed Al-Fayed has called for the Premier League to introduce a cap on transfers and salaries in the wake of Manchester City’s £100m-plus pursuit of Kaka.

City have been flexing their new-found financial muscle since being taken over by Sheikh Mansour last summer and are willing to smash the world transfer record to bring Brazil star Kaka to Eastlands on a salary of half a million pounds a week.

Al-Fayed believes such a deal would be detrimental to the game, however, and said he would not pay more than £15m for any player.

“It’s madness,” he told the BBC.

“If you have one fantastic striker, what about the rest of the team, the players around him? It’s gambling to do things like that.

“It’s bad news for football because it’s crazy.

“All this is still in the hands of the Premier League and the FA. They have the power not to allow things like this to happen and I hope they wake up and realise it’s not acceptable.

“They can put a cap on transfer fees and salaries.”

Al-Fayed, whose own transfer record at Craven Cottage is about £11m for Steve Marlet in 2001,

does not believe heavy spending guarantees success.

“It’s how you breed players,” he added.

“There are so many great young, talent players in the academies and this is the art, not buying someone for £100m.”