If you want change, make tapping-up and other transfer violation laws stricter and (actually) applicable for large clubs.

That will save football.

It is believed that most such ideas that go through Platini’s mind are aimed against the Premier League, fueled by his hatred for English football because of Heysel.

Platini is well meaning, but most of his arguments are short-sighted, and they’ll cause more problems than they’ll solve, at least in their present forms. You can’t turn the clocks back: as long as the sport is popular, then it will always be flooded with money. Platini should simply accept this and try to channel his efforts into making sure that the grassroots game gets to see some of that money. Either that or start a revolution. Oh, and also getting rid of some of that corruption in the governing bodies would be nice.

While I still think Platini harbors an irrational bias against all things English (he is French after all) and can come off at times sounding like a slightly less barmy Sepp Blatter, on this particular point I have to agree with him–there needs to be some sort of financial structure in place. Football, especially in England, but at the highest levels everywhere, is characterized by a wild west mentality that can create magic on the pitch but can also all too often create a disaster for supporters if things go wrong (Leeds, Fiorentina in the 90’s, and Chelsea in the 80’s are the poster children for this). While recovery can and does happen, it often takes years to recover (much like economies) and sometimes, these clubs never recover at all. I think there is some legal wiggle room to institute a financial structure that allows clubs to spend lavishly but ensures that they remain within certain bounds–perhaps scrapping the transfer system or significantly altering it to ensure greater player power in negotiations may be the way to go. Baseball has all sorts of problems dealing with the legacy of the steroid era, but what they have got right is the basic financial structure upon which it is based–it is as financially sound as any professional sport in the world, including the NFL–and perhaps can be looked at as an example. Obviously, there are problems insofar as scale is concerned–with football, we’re speaking of thousands upon thousands of clubs, but perhaps a luxury tax of sorts and player trades could be looked at as possibilities.