Platini slams Premier League giants

Michel Platini has done it again. He has launched an attack on Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United for ‘luring’ young footballers from overseas to the BPL.

Platini certainly isn’t happy with English clubs signing talents from abroad. He has promised to work with politicians to ban clubs from signing any more 16-year-old boys from abroad.

This move could set out a divide between UEFA and the clubs, who have been signing foreign youngsters not just in their Premier League line-ups but also in their reserve and youth teams.

Platini said: ‘I have told the European Commission that we should ban the transfer of minors.

‘The first football contract that a player signs should be for club that trains them. You don’t train someone to be sold, you train a player to play. It is important to protect our young people. Minors shouldn’t be seen as a machine that can be transferred for the benefit of agents or clubs. They have time enough for that.

‘I left for another country at 25. You don’t need to leave at 15. It’s to do with protecting social values, family values. There is no justification for buying them at 15, getting them over with parents, that is just not on.

‘I really don’t like it when a club like Lugano, Geneve, Brescia or Nancy train a player and then when they are 16 they are bought by much richer clubs. We’re going to fight it.’