Football review published

[aka Dus]

As more and more time passes, a proper attempt at legislating the "free market" of football comes closer, in the context of how the EU definitively view it.

 

Elite clubs fear publication of proposals to curb excesses

 

Andrew Culf

Tuesday May 23, 2006

The Guardian

http://football.guardian.co.uk/blueprint/s...1781012,00.html

 

A radical European-wide blueprint to curb football's growing excesses will be presented to Tony Blair at Downing Street today, with recommendations on a range of controversial issues, including salary caps, the number of foreign players, ownership of clubs and the role of agents.

Richard Caborn, the sports minister who initiated the review insists the proposals will give football authorities greater freedom and improve the game's governance. But the Premier League and the G14 group of Europe's elite clubs fear the 100-page review, drawn up by the former Portuguese sports minister Jose Luis Arnaut will result in an unwarranted level of regulation and interference from Brussels.

 

The Premier League will not make a formal response to this afternoon's official publication, saying it will take time to study its contents, but it is worried that Arnaut could propose a salary cap based on clubs' turnover. The league believes such a measure would only penalise smaller clubs and leave the wealthier teams unaffected. The Premiership also fears the review could encourage clubs to circumvent a wage ceiling with offers of houses or cars.

Caborn has previously spoken in support of salary caps and the issue has become more pressing with Premiership clubs paying their stars an average of £13,000 per week or £676,000 a year, while some in the elite bracket, such as Chelsea's new signing Michael Ballack are thought to be earning £130,000 a week.

 

The review will also make recommendations on the number of home-grown players that clubs should have in their squads to encourage local academy systems, but the Premier League believes a curb on foreign players would be unworkable. The recommendations are also unlikely to be welcomed by G14, whose members include Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, who want greater independence from the football authorities.

 

Tony Blair will be presented with a copy of the Independent European Football Review, which was initiated under the British presidency of the European Union, by Caborn, Arnaut and Uefa's chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson. Downing Street will not issue an immediate detailed response . Caborn and Olsson will then fly to Brussels to make a formal presentation to José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission. If the commission and member governments agree, the recommendations could become enshrined in European legislation.

 

Caborn has claimed the review will leave football's governing bodies to get on with their jobs while ensuring they are well-run and accountable. Whitehall sources say it could formalise the relationship between Brussels and football, replacing the the ad hoc situation where policy has been determined by rulings of the European Court of Justice, such as in the Bosman case, or Charleroi's battle with Fifa over compensation for a player injured while on international duty.

 

The report will also make recommendations on the distribution of revenue to the grassroots of the game, protection against match-fixing and how football can create social inclusion.

 

Uefa threatens top clubs with caps on salaries and foreign players

 

Andrew Culf in Brussels

Wednesday May 24, 2006

 

The Guardian

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,1781781,00.html

 

Football clubs across Europe could face caps on players' wages and limits on the number of foreign players they can field. The recommendations were made yesterday in a review of European football, initiated by the British government and Uefa, which delivered a devastating critique of the state of the game.

The report won the cautious support of the sports minister Richard Caborn, who said it represented the "right direction of travel" although more work needed to be done over the next six months.

 

Jose Luis Arnaut, the former Portuguese sports minister and the report's author, said football was not in good health and "only the direct involvement of political leaders" could help put it back on the road to recovery. "Clubs are increasingly involved in some sort of 'arms race' in relation to spending on players' salaries," he said. The report recommends "the establishment of an effective salary cap system in Europe", which could hit clubs like Chelsea who are reportedly paying Michael Ballack £130,000 a week.

Other key recommendations in the report include:

 

· An obligation on all clubs to have a certain number of home-grown players in their squads

 

· A crackdown on the activities of agents, with an insistence on transparency in transactions, an effective disciplinary system and no "dual representation" payments

 

· A legal obligation on clubs to release players for international team duty, without an entitlement to compensation

 

· Introduction of a "fit and proper person" test for those running football clubs.

 

The Premier League, which has been fearful of an additional layer of Brussels-imposed regulation, was studying the report last night. Uefa said it was not giving an immediate response before officials had studied it more closely.