Wenger supports wages limitation but feels it wouldnt work

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes there is a case for limiting top-flight clubs' expenditure on wages to a percentage of total income.

Wigan chairman Dave Whelan last month called for such a measure to be introduced to avoid the Premier League being "ruined" by the spending power of Chelsea, who are backed by billionaire Roman Abramovich.

And this week FIFA president Sepp Blatter launched a blistering attack on hugely wealthy club owners he claims are threatening the future of football, saying "pornographic amounts of money" being thrown around by some could suffocate the game.

Football already runs a voluntary salary cap in Coca-Cola League One and League Two, where clubs cannot spend more than 60% of their income on players' salaries.

And Wenger feels it is something which could also be put into practice for the English top flight.

The Arsenal manager reflected: "What would be fair is you can only dedicate a percentage of your turnover to the wages, because you have to give a freedom to people to pay their players the amount of money they want.

"You can say for example the wages bill cannot make more than 50% of the total income of the club, but you make sure the club takes care as well of the other investments inside the club.

"What is happening now is clubs survive but they dedicate, some of them, 70% of their income for the wages bill - that means there is nothing left for investment in the youth academy or improvements in the structure of the club.

"It would be more reasonable to say you can only dedicate maybe 50% of the wages of the income."

In rugby league, the engage Super League clubs were restricted to an annual player budget of £1.7million.

FIFA supremo Blatter, though, has admitted such a proposal "will not help because we cannot intervene in the economic system and the European Union would not accept it".

It was a sentiment echoed by Wenger.
"I don't believe in it [a wage cap]," the Arsenal manager said.
"Do you think really if tomorrow Abramovich negotiates a contract with [Frank] Lampard, you can stop him from paying like he wants to pay him?
"How can you do it? How can you control it?"

Wenger maintained: "It is an incitement to cheat."

Blatter's solution to prevent the richest clubs hoarding all the best talent is to put a limit on squad numbers and ensure more home-grown players are included, with six in each starting team at domestic level.

The Arsenal boss, though, believes such a system would be detrimental and also ineffective as under the guidelines, the likes of their 18-year-old Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas would be considered 'home-grown'.

Wenger insisted: "First of all we will fight with millions to get the young players at 16 or 17, and instead of getting a better education we will spoil them more.

"Now the clubs are out to get the best players in Europe at 16, so they can be home-grown because they have to spend three years before the age of 21.

"The second effect is a player who is home-grown, you will give him a contract even if he cannot walk anymore because just sometimes he will make the number."
The Arsenal manager declared: "Top-level sport is performance, nothing else."