With apparently zero input from aggrieved parties or the interested stakeholders, FIFA want to limit the number of loans to eight. If they want to do something worthwhile about clubs like Chelsea they should cap the number of loans per player.
Gianni Infantino returned from his post-World Cup break to find FIFA was not facing any active United States Department of Justice indictments, no new BBC investigations of working conditions and deaths at Qatar’s World Cup construction sites and no cryptic voicemails from Cayman Island holding companies. So with absolutely nothing else to plague his mind – certainly not the World Cup pitch invader turning up poisoned in Moscow – he turned his attentions to an old hobby-horse: the loan system.
Infantino’s desire to “do something!” goes back at least to November 2016. As we said then, Infantino longs to micro-manage club business in order to bring the mega-clubs to heel, all cloaked in the virtue of “think of the children!”
Like any bureaucrat invested with the trappings of autocracy, Infantino doesn’t understand – or understands and simply cannot abide – the voluntary nature of loans. Chelsea and Juventus do not strong-arm Vitesse, Nantes, Aston Villa, AC Milan or Sassuolo to take their cast-offs. Those clubs willingly take the loanees. The loanees may fill a short-term need, such as standing in for an experienced player who will miss an entire season through injury. Or the loanee may round out the depth chart and offer new intra-squad competition and tactical options.
In many cases, the loan system allows the receiving club to have a player they could never afford to buy. A player Chelsea will never use is still more expensive than most players a club may ever have.
Yes, Chelsea and Juventus “hoarding” players pushes up their value to where the lower clubs are priced out. But there will always be players outside of one club’s budget and outside of another club’s intention. And that’s why the loan system benefits everyone. Like any act of trade, the parties involved would not go into if they were not benefitting from it.
But what’s the point of being in charge of FIFA if you can’t control everything at your whim?
If FIFA want to address some issues with Chelsea’s loan army, they should focus on the number of loans per player rather than the number of players on loan.
The FIFA proposal would apply to players over 21. Particularly for clubs like Chelsea, Manchester City and Juventus, a player needs several years of top flight experience before they will enter the squad. Loans for players in this situation can be beneficial to give them this experience while still being under contract and in touch with the club. It is certainly better than them sitting on the bench and playing with the reserves.
Problems arise when players spend several years in the loan system but never get closer – or never get realistically close – to the first team. By a certain age and a certain number of opportunities to watch them, a team should know whether or not that player will ever be up to the level of the first team. At some point in the last few years, Chelsea realized Matej Delac, Michael Hector and Kenneth Omeruo were never going to see the inside of Stamford Bridge without buying a ticket. Even without a technical director (310 days), the club should be able to figure these things out and make decisions. Or at least they should be. Who knows what finally forced them to action with Delac.
If FIFA wants to reform loan systems, this is where they should start. Setting a limit for the number of loans a player over a certain age can have from the same parent club would trim the loan army by forcing teams to Sergio Ramos or get off the pot with these players whose future is clearly not at their parent club.
Gianni Infantino – like his predecessors – has no record of seeking buy-in from his constituencies because, in practice and in fact, he has none. He has subjects, particularly at the club level. If he were to talk to clubs at all levels, he would probably hear few parties in support of his plans. Exhibit A from the smaller clubs would be all the players they have taken on loan and the contributions they have made to the team.
To put it in terms that might resonate with him: it’s good to have your colleagues on your side. Character witnesses can be quite important at a sentencing hearing.