After reading an article on Bobby McMahon's blog click here to read it, it got me thinking about the problems and possible solutions that not only affect the Premier League, but European Football in general.  

First we need to analyze the problem.  The article I linked does a good job of talking about it, so if you have not read it I will summarize it as best I can in a paragraph or two.  The Premier league is basically a competition between three teams at this point, Chelsea, Manchester United, and Arsenal, with Liverpool in a distant forth.  The current formula for success it appears to be either you accumulate massive amounts of debt like Arsenal, Manchester United, or Liverpool, or you hope that a billionaire will buy your club like Manchester City or Chelsea.

In order for a club to compete you need money, how that club gets money depends on the situation.  Types of revenue that really benefit a club in no particular order are gate receipts, TV deals, merchandising, shirt sponsors, selling players, and appearing in the champions league(the farther you progress the more money you make)

I agree the Premier league is headed towards eventual bankruptcy.  The reason I believe this is because of two major events, they are the Bosman Ruling, and Roman Abramovich purchasing Chelsea.  The Bosman Ruling had both positive and negative effects on the footballing world; it allowed players more freedom in moving to more desired clubs, or earning more money.  While the negative points are that it has created an unhealthy player auction block which has only increased every year, and is spiraling out of control.

The second occurrence was when Roman Abramovich purchased Chelsea.  With his unrivaled wealth, no player, or coach was out of his range, and he significantly changed the way players worth were valued.  Couple this with the Bosman ruling, and you have player transfer fees that are breaking records every year, and putting many clubs in debt in the process.  This has in turn turned the premier league into a three horse race.  (Maybe four, we will wait and see if Liverpool can continue their run.)

In order for the balance of the league to be restored, the premier league needs to follow such leagues as the NFL.  The salary cap is the first thing that comes to mind, but since American leagues and European leagues are set up so different, some sort of transfer cap should also be implemented.  This will effectively put a stop to transfer fees sky rocketing, while also having the side effect of limiting the amount of transfers that occur each year.  They could even go a step further with the salary cap and divide it into two categories.  Each team would have a salary cap for transferred players, and either a higher cap, or no cap at all for players brought up through the clubs youth system.

I am sure there would be some very stiff opposition from the top teams, and one of the biggest arguments, if not the biggest arguments I can envision being used will be that it will give an unfair advantage to other leagues.  The advantage will be that other leagues such as La Liga will be able too attract top players either away from premier league, or from traditional soccer hotbeds like Brazil, where highly sought after player may choose to play in Spain over England, because he will be able to make more money in Spain.

So the only way this type of plan will ever succeed is if UEFA gets behind it and sets certain rules that govern all the leagues with the same salary and transfer rules.  I see several positive things that could result from this.  The first would be that developing players would once again become a top priority for top clubs (Especially if there was no salary cap for academy developed players).  This would in turn, due to the transfer restrictions make it easier for the smaller clubs to retain their talented players that they developed, which would hypothetically make those clubs competitive over the long term, and create a fairer league.

There is no doubt a plan like this would not only be difficult to implement, but would also face stiff competition from top clubs such as members of the G14, however I feel it rewards the best clubs by allowing them to keep the money they earned in such competitions as the Champions League, while stopping it from carrying over to an unfair advantage on the field.  Not only that but with a salary, and transfer cap, owners stand to make a lot more money, than in the current unregulated transfer market.