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As you have undoubtedly read or heard it
looks as if transfer fees for the majority of players are to be abolished. It
was only a matter of time before something would happen to deal with the crazy
amounts of money involved in transfer deals. The fees asked didn't seem to be
related to any true measure of a player's worth and were encouraging rogue
agents to cash in on an unregulated system. The current situation could not have
gone on much longer before real and lasting damage occurred. FIFA (the world
governing body) has made the initial decision to end transfer fees for players
over the age of 24 while allowing clubs 'compensatation' for the money invested
in the product of their youth schemes (the players between the ages of 18-24),
while youth players (under 18's) cannot be subject to international transfers.
UEFA (Europe's governing body) is not happy with what it regards as a hasty
decision and the European Community, who exerted the pressure to alter the
transfer system, has not yet agreed to FIFA's proposals. The EC's motivation for starting
this ball rolling is the concept of free movement of labour as encapsulated in
the Treaty of Rome. There are those who argue that footballers should be treated
the same as any other 'worker' and others who feel that football should be seen
as a 'special case' and as such warranting exemption from strict adherence to
the 'letter of the law'.
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For example, FIFA's meeting last week in Zurich with
English Premier League clubs and the English players' representative Gordon
Taylor have agreed in principle that in any new system players would have to
serve out at least one year at a club before being able to move on to another.
This is an idea which is already standard practice in the US's American Football
League. In recent days the UK's Prime
Minister Tony Blair has decided to intervene ( his government having threatened
intervention a few weeks ago) expressing his opposition and saying that he was
going to talk to other European leaders about making an exception for football
with regards to the letter of the law. This promises to be a long and protracted
legal struggle between the EC, its member countries and the world of football.
We'll keep you informed of events as they happen.
Copyright © 2000 [FootballNL].
All rights reserved.
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