What We're Reading
Platini Speaks Out Against Transfers, Technology
- Reuters, Friday, August 30, 2013 1:25 PM
Speaking at a media conference on Friday, UEFA President Michel Platini described the current transfer system as “robbery,” and suggested that the use of goal-line technology has opened a “Pandora’s Box” that could end with demands for other kinds of technology to aid referees’ decisions.
"Today, the player is more a product than a player and that irks me because there is a whole lot of people trying to make this player make money in order to earn commissions, we should think about that and try to find something more healthy,” the Frenchman said.
"Players are not free and are they don't even belong to clubs, they belong to financial holdings, companies or people, whereas before you belonged to the club, now it's a holding company or a financial company or one person.” He added that the transfer circus is abetted by a window that is “too big, too long.”
Turning his attention to the use of technology to aid referee decisions, Platini said that goal-line technology would beget calls for other kinds of technology. "I told you from the start I was against this technology, because then we will have offside technology, penalty technology, throw-in technology, everything," the former France captain said. “The Pandora's box has been opened, that's what I said would happen at the beginning and now we are getting the confirmation."
