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Sheer class HN.
Blatter's plan is not welcome in Europe:
BRUSSELS, May 8 (Reuters) - The European Parliament dealt another blow to FIFA president Sepp Blatter's controversial plans to curb the number of foreigners at soccer clubs by voting against the proposals on Thursday.
EU lawmakers rejected Blatter's '6+5 rule', allowing no more than five foreign players to start a match, by 518 votes to 49 but most backed the 'home-grown player rule' of European soccer's governing body UEFA.
'The parliament calls on the member states and sports associations not to introduce new rules that create direct discrimination based on nationality, such as FIFA's 6+5,' the resolution said.
'It calls on the Commission to recognise the legality of measures favouring the promotion of players who have come through training schemes, such as a minimum number of locally-trained players, irrespective of their nationality.'
FIFA opposes the UEFA rule, which sets a quota of locally-trained players at clubs but without any discrimination on nationality, arguing it encourages recruitment at a young age.
UEFA says Blatter's proposal is unworkable in the EU because it contravenes the bloc's laws on the free movement of workers and could lead to costly legal challenges - a view echoed by the EU assembly.
'Unfortunately the 6+5 rule is not compatible with the free movement of persons in the EU. The European Treaty is very clear on this point: discrimination on the basis of nationality is not allowed and this also counts for football,' Belgian MEP Ivo Belet, author of the parliament's report on the future of professional football, told the assembly.
'We therefore ask FIFA to join forces with the European Parliament and the European Commission and fully back the 'home-grown' rule.'
MEPs also slammed Blatter's idea of reaching a 'gentlemen's agreement' with the individual associations at FIFA's congress later this month, saying he risked a repetition of the 1995 'Bosman Ruling' by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
The ruling by Europe's top court, named after Belgian player Jean-Marc Bosman, gave all sports professionals within the 27-member bloc the freedom to change clubs.
'We ask Mr Blatter not to take us back to Bosman. We cannot go back to the pre-Bosman era. A professional footballer is a worker and should be treated like any other worker,' Greek MEP Mnolis Mavromatis, who wrote Thursday's resolution, said.
Dutch MEP Toine Manders said: 'In the jungle of sport we need clear legal guidelines. If you ask if these gentleman's agreements will hold, you are very wrong.'
'We are talking about big business, powerful clubs who will go to court if necessary. Mr Blatter will only open up another pandora's box like Bosman.'
The Commission is expected to come forward later this year with a proposal on locally-trained players in all sports, which will require the backing of both the EU assembly and the 27 sports ministers.
To change FIFA's rules, Blatter needs 75 percent support at the congress in Sydney on May 29 where each of FIFA's 208 member associations who are eligible to vote have one vote each and UEFA as an organisation has none.
BRUSSELS, May 8 (Reuters) - The European Parliament dealt another blow to FIFA president Sepp Blatter's controversial plans to curb the number of foreigners at soccer clubs by voting against the proposals on Thursday.
EU lawmakers rejected Blatter's '6+5 rule', allowing no more than five foreign players to start a match, by 518 votes to 49 but most backed the 'home-grown player rule' of European soccer's governing body UEFA.
'The parliament calls on the member states and sports associations not to introduce new rules that create direct discrimination based on nationality, such as FIFA's 6+5,' the resolution said.
'It calls on the Commission to recognise the legality of measures favouring the promotion of players who have come through training schemes, such as a minimum number of locally-trained players, irrespective of their nationality.'
FIFA opposes the UEFA rule, which sets a quota of locally-trained players at clubs but without any discrimination on nationality, arguing it encourages recruitment at a young age.
UEFA says Blatter's proposal is unworkable in the EU because it contravenes the bloc's laws on the free movement of workers and could lead to costly legal challenges - a view echoed by the EU assembly.
'Unfortunately the 6+5 rule is not compatible with the free movement of persons in the EU. The European Treaty is very clear on this point: discrimination on the basis of nationality is not allowed and this also counts for football,' Belgian MEP Ivo Belet, author of the parliament's report on the future of professional football, told the assembly.
'We therefore ask FIFA to join forces with the European Parliament and the European Commission and fully back the 'home-grown' rule.'
MEPs also slammed Blatter's idea of reaching a 'gentlemen's agreement' with the individual associations at FIFA's congress later this month, saying he risked a repetition of the 1995 'Bosman Ruling' by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
The ruling by Europe's top court, named after Belgian player Jean-Marc Bosman, gave all sports professionals within the 27-member bloc the freedom to change clubs.
'We ask Mr Blatter not to take us back to Bosman. We cannot go back to the pre-Bosman era. A professional footballer is a worker and should be treated like any other worker,' Greek MEP Mnolis Mavromatis, who wrote Thursday's resolution, said.
Dutch MEP Toine Manders said: 'In the jungle of sport we need clear legal guidelines. If you ask if these gentleman's agreements will hold, you are very wrong.'
'We are talking about big business, powerful clubs who will go to court if necessary. Mr Blatter will only open up another pandora's box like Bosman.'
The Commission is expected to come forward later this year with a proposal on locally-trained players in all sports, which will require the backing of both the EU assembly and the 27 sports ministers.
To change FIFA's rules, Blatter needs 75 percent support at the congress in Sydney on May 29 where each of FIFA's 208 member associations who are eligible to vote have one vote each and UEFA as an organisation has none.
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'We ask Mr Blatter not to take us back to Bosman. We cannot go back to the pre-Bosman era. A professional footballer is a worker and should be treated like any other worker,' Greek MEP Mnolis Mavromatis, who wrote Thursday's resolution, said.
A professional football is a worked like any other worker, but the employer is not and that is the vital difference. The "employer" is dependent on fans, where the normal customer-company relationship does not apply. If a company pisses me off, I re-direct my business to a rival company. If my football club pisses me off, I moan about it but still go back for more because the club represents a part of my identity. No wonder we have so many floating glory hunters in the modern game, where you pick a club to support without regard to where you live or are from. When we get a generation or two from the origin of football support, I wonder where that will leave the club outside the very top. Or even international football (the logical extension of the argument being that national teams contravene the rules too).
PS Blatter is not talking about returning to pre-Bosman per se - where the main ruling governed ability to move for free when out of contract - he is talking about reigning in the secondary impact of Bosman's removal of nationality rules.
PPS I was talking to a fellow non-Prem fan recently - a mate back home who is from Cardiff. He really hopes the club never gets into the top flight as it will ruin it for the fans - I could post the full comment. I bet we reach a point soon where some clubs decline promotion. But I digress.
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Also, the home grown rule does not work at all. It just means the big clubs sign all the kids from around the globe. There is also a mismatch in laws within Europe. In Spain a kid can't sign a contract until 18, which is why Arsenal were able to poach from Barcelona's academy - can' remember the player, but can get it when I get home and look in 442. Whilst Arsenal were ordered to pay Barcelona some money, the general consensus was that they'd got away with one. The Spanish clubs are complaining about the lack of fairness.
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I think the player was Cesc Fabregas...
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Didn't FIFA put in a rule not so long ago that clubs can't sign players who are under 18 years of age?
Seem to remember something about this, but don't have the time to hunt it up now.
Seem to remember something about this, but don't have the time to hunt it up now.
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I think that's only for players from South America. Not sure if it applies within Europe. So Pato missed half a season with Milan because of it, but young Spaniards don't fall under it.
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Not certain, but I think there were some challenges with Costa about it seeing as he moved to professional football with an Aus. club beofre that age.
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Article 19 of Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players:
International transfers of players are only permitted if the player is over the age of 18.
2. The following three exceptions to this rule apply:
a) The player�s parents move to the country in which the new club is located for reasons not linked to football;
b) The transfer takes place within the territory of the European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA) and the player is aged between 16 and 18. In this case, the new club must ful?l the following minimum obligations:
i) It shall provide the player with an adequate football education and/or training in line with the highest national standards.
ii) It shall guarantee the player an academic and/or school and/or vocational education and/or training, in addition to his football education and/or training, which will allow the player to pursue a career other than football should he cease playing professional football.
iii) It shall make all necessary arrangements to ensure that the player is looked after in the best possible way (optimum living standards with a host family or in club accommodation, appointment of a mentor at the club, etc.).
iv) It shall, on registration of such a player, provide the relevant association with proof that it is complying with the aforementioned obligations;
c) The player lives no further than 50km from a national border and the club with which the player wishes to be registered in the neighbouring association is also within 50km of that border. The maximum distance between the player�s domicile and the club�s headquarters shall be 100km. In such cases, the player must continue to live at home and the two associations concerned must give their explicit consent. yomcat2008-05-09 14:53:35
International transfers of players are only permitted if the player is over the age of 18.
2. The following three exceptions to this rule apply:
a) The player�s parents move to the country in which the new club is located for reasons not linked to football;
b) The transfer takes place within the territory of the European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA) and the player is aged between 16 and 18. In this case, the new club must ful?l the following minimum obligations:
i) It shall provide the player with an adequate football education and/or training in line with the highest national standards.
ii) It shall guarantee the player an academic and/or school and/or vocational education and/or training, in addition to his football education and/or training, which will allow the player to pursue a career other than football should he cease playing professional football.
iii) It shall make all necessary arrangements to ensure that the player is looked after in the best possible way (optimum living standards with a host family or in club accommodation, appointment of a mentor at the club, etc.).
iv) It shall, on registration of such a player, provide the relevant association with proof that it is complying with the aforementioned obligations;
c) The player lives no further than 50km from a national border and the club with which the player wishes to be registered in the neighbouring association is also within 50km of that border. The maximum distance between the player�s domicile and the club�s headquarters shall be 100km. In such cases, the player must continue to live at home and the two associations concerned must give their explicit consent.
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'We ask Mr Blatter not to take us back to Bosman. We cannot go back to the pre-Bosman era. A professional footballer is a worker and should be treated like any other worker,' Greek MEP Mnolis Mavromatis, who wrote Thursday's resolution, said.
A professional football is a worked like any other worker, but the employer is not and that is the vital difference. The "employer" is dependent on fans, where the normal customer-company relationship does not apply. If a company pisses me off, I re-direct my business to a rival company. If my football club pisses me off, I moan about it but still go back for more because the club represents a part of my identity. No wonder we have so many floating glory hunters in the modern game, where you pick a club to support without regard to where you live or are from. When we get a generation or two from the origin of football support, I wonder where that will leave the club outside the very top. Or even international football (the logical extension of the argument being that national teams contravene the rules too).
PS Blatter is not talking about returning to pre-Bosman per se - where the main ruling governed ability to move for free when out of contract - he is talking about reigning in the secondary impact of Bosman's removal of nationality rules.
PPS I was talking to a fellow non-Prem fan recently - a mate back home who is from Cardiff. He really hopes the club never gets into the top flight as it will ruin it for the fans - I could post the full comment. I bet we reach a point soon where some clubs decline promotion. But I digress.
While I partly agree with you when considering home grown fans there is so much pressure to capture the international market the international "fan" must really be considered as a consumer. That's why the big clubs are always off on overseas trips. These are not just big money spinners in their own right, they are also marketing devices to attract new "fans". This becomes more and more important in terms of revenue as clubs increase their on-line presence such as on-line "TV" offerings.
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I can understand why its impossible to prevent EU nationals from moving and playing(working) anywhere in the EU....it makes sense as it is covered by EU employment laws. But how come there are so many non EU citizens playing inside the EU. All those Africans and South Americans...there are even 100+ Aussies playing in Europe.
Surely if Blatter wants less foreigners in Clubs they should look at why it is so easy to flood the EU football comps with non EU citizens. I know from personnel experiance how hard it is to get a work permit in the EU.
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I remember from the whole Mark Gonzalez saga (hardly worth all the effort in the end) that to have any chance of getting a work permit for England (assuming that you weren't an EU citizen) you had to be from a country ranked in the top 75 on the FIFA rankings and had to have played something like 80% of your countries internationals over the last 12 months or 2 years or something like that.
But there is a back door. With the EU so big now and some EU countries having less red tape than others you could spend 2 or 3 three years playing somewhere in the European back blocks, get your residency and then all of Europe is at your mercy.
But there is a back door. With the EU so big now and some EU countries having less red tape than others you could spend 2 or 3 three years playing somewhere in the European back blocks, get your residency and then all of Europe is at your mercy.
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Eduardo comes to mind but he qualifyied by also playing the requisite number of games for croatia.
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I can understand why its impossible to prevent EU nationals from moving and playing(working) anywhere in the EU....it makes sense as it is covered by EU employment laws. But how come there are so many non EU citizens playing inside the EU. All those Africans and South Americans...there are even 100+ Aussies playing in Europe.
Surely if Blatter wants less foreigners in Clubs they should look at why it is so easy to flood the EU football comps with non EU citizens. I know from personnel experiance how hard it is to get a work permit in the EU.
I think you'll find that the countries where all the Africans and Sth Americans are playing in have additional rules for their colonial cousins. For example I don't think Brazilians need a permit to work in Portugal, or it is very easy for them to get one.
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Eduardo comes to mind but he qualifyied by also playing the requisite number of games for croatia.
Croatia isn't part of the EU. And Eduardo came to Dinamo at 14, so he was hardly 'fast-tracked' to represent Croatia. He's played at age-grade levels for Croatia, and had to wait until the last qualifying cycle to become a regular in the national team.
He was in the 2006 World Cup squad but made no appearances on the pitch.
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