NYON: UEFA will consider introducing squad limits and changes to the transfer system to prevent European teams hoarding players and stem the growing gap between rich and poor clubs, its president Aleksander Ceferin said on Wednesday. The Slovenian lawyer, elected as the head of European soccer’s governing body last September, told a conference in Lisbon that UEFA needed to address a “decrease in competitive balance” within European club football. The last few years have seen the increasing dominance of a few elite clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Europe’s smaller leagues complain that big teams cream off their players at a young age, only to immediately send them on loan elsewhere, while the likes of Ajax Amsterdam and Benfica, once major powers, have effectively become feeder clubs. “We do have to examine new mechanisms like luxury taxes and in particular sporting criteria like squad limitations and fair transfer rules, to avoid player hoarding and excessive concentration of talent within a few teams,” said Ceferin. “We do need to assess whether the transfer market as it operates today is the best we can do? We cannot be afraid to touch it.” Ceferin did not give any further details on what he meant by luxury taxes, but added that UEFA could work with global soccer body FIFA to change the transfer market or do so via its own licensing regulations.