How fitting UEFA's president chose to deliver another sermon on the excesses of football as he and his colleagues soaked up the sun in that enclave of wealth and luxury, Monaco.

If Michel Platini's outburst on the outlandish spending in the game gave off a faint whiff of double standards, given that it was delivered in the principality, the fact Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has lined up behind the Frenchman to stop Manchester City in their tracks, purely wreaked of hypocrisy.

The Russian has spent £700m since taking control at Stamford Bridge in 2003 but now, along with AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi and Inter Milan chief Massimo Moratti, he's decided to try and lock the door behind him.

As Platini put it, Abramovich and his pals don't want to "fork out any more." Well, forgive us if we fail to weep at their plight, Michel.

The UEFA chief made specific mention of City, who have spent £120m this summer in a bid to gatecrash the monopoly at the top of English football's pyramid, but not of Real Madrid, who splashed £16m more than that on just two players.

Platini's comments will do little to quell the accusation that, once again, his sights are firmly trained on ending the Premier League's dominance in the world's biggest club competition. He clearly feels City's outlay means they will be there soon.

Manchester United and Liverpool will have noted Platini's comments with interest, given that both clubs are heavily in debt. Will Platini really tell Sir Alex Ferguson he can't compete in the Champions League because the club's owners owe the bank millions of pounds?

Arsenal are in arrears too, but the fact that their deficit stems from the building of the Emirates Stadium will apparently grant them exemption under the current proposals.

Whichever way you look at the plan it seems designed to ensure the rich clubs get richer and the poor clubs get poorer. If clubs can only spend what they earn how are Portsmouth ever going to get into Europe?

Platini claims the new system will encourage more investors because "they will be able to make money. At the moment you don't get these businessmen because clubs are losing money".

When did anybody ever get involved in football to make money? Are Manchester City's new owners expecting a return on their mammoth outlay in a few years time or are they there purely for the prestige of owning a big-hitting football club? And do they care about an outlay of £120m when they are worth 20 times that?

Surely the move will put off cash-rich investors if their transformation of a club via significant funding means they forfeit the right to compete in Europe.

The global financial crisis has injected urgency into Platini's 'financial fair play' model and he insists UEFA must act when the credit crunch is affecting all 53 member states.

And while no one could argue the sums of money exchanging hands this summer demonstrates football is now operating on a different level of reality to the rest of the financial world, how you police it is another matter.

A salary cap has long been mooted but always accompanied by suggestions that such a plan would be unworkable, with clubs offering incentives to players in bonuses and signing on fees instead,

With ten months still to go before UEFA unleash the full details of their scheme on the football world there are still many issues to be ironed out.

Their attempt to put more flesh on the bones has only served to provoke more questions than ever about how it will work.