Lost in bureaucracy 3

Lost in bureaucracy 3

Written by Adam Brogden.

This article follows on from part 1 and part 2

To put everything thus far  into perspective the actual agenda of the EC is to have a fair and balanced competition independent of financial means. Yet, they are aware that the very essence of a transfer market fuels an imbalanced industry.

They are also aware of the elite closed group that continuously gain entry into UEFA’s competitions and extra funding. This is something that needs addressing as the solidarity payments that clubs get for entering these competitions goes against “a fair and balanced competition”.  Only 6% of money from UEFA’s competitions goes to clubs not competing and this needs to change to help level the playing field at national league level.

Also noted are the training payments for players moving from their training club and signing their first professional contract with another club. At the moment only players under 23 qualify for their previous clubs to get training payments (also referred to as solidarity payments, just to confuse us).  These are set at the beginning of every season by the national association who inform the clubs each year of their status, usually the bigger the club the better the compensation package.

Also we have the solidarity payments within a transfer fee that makes its way via the selling club to the player’s previous clubs. And some clubs have to be  chased for this small 5% just to show you how greedy some clubs can be.

• –Season of 12^th birthday: 5% (i.e. 0.25% of total compensation);
• –Season of 13^th birthday: 5% (i.e. 0.25% of total compensation);
• –Season of 14^th birthday: 5% (i.e. 0.25% of total compensation);
• –Season of 15^th birthday: 5% (i.e. 0.25% of total compensation);
• –Season of 16^th birthday: 10% (i.e. 0.5% of total compensation);
• –Season of 17^th birthday: 10% (i.e. 0.5% of total compensation);
• –Season of 18^th birthday: 10% (i.e. 0.5% of total compensation);
• –Season of 19^th birthday: 10% (i.e. 0.5% of total compensation);
• –Season of 20^th birthday: 10% (i.e. 0.5% of total compensation);
• –Season of 21^st birthday: 10% (i.e. 0.5% of total compensation);
• –Season of 22^nd birthday: 10% (i.e. 0.5% of total compensation);
• –Season of 23^rd birthday: 10% (i.e. 0.5% of total compensation);

The scenario we have at the moment is that 5% of any transfer fee makes its way to the training clubs he attended as a trainee between his 12^th and 23^rd birthdays, and the other 95% goes to the selling club.

This is again, in my opinion, an imbalance that needs addressing. As the future of the industry always lays with the youth of tomorrow and we need to invest in their futures. The sport can afford it and it’s the right thing to do and will only expose more of our youth to football which will benefit the long term sustainability of the industry. Also when we consider an outside investor such investors are not subject to these rules and so do not contribute any of the wealth accrued through TPPO’s to training clubs; another reason to outlaw this practice. Some clubs willingly use this method to avoid contributing to the foundations of the sport.

So the EC wants a “fair and balanced” competition regardless of finance, but has to implement a form of oversight to make football clubs more transparent as well as forcing them to adhere to the rules that will safeguard the industry. Some rules come very close to being restrictive to a person’s ability to decide their own future yet the EC will make exceptions to the usual rules if they deem it necessary for the integrity of the sport.

The Exemptions:

• -They must be applied in a non-discriminatory manner;
• -They must be justified by overriding reasons in the public interest;
• -They must be suitable for securing the attainment of the objective they pursue and,
• -They must not go beyond what is necessary for that purpose.

The above is from the EC, so will be interesting to see how Mr Striani will get around this and also how the interested parties will react when eventually TPPO’s are outlawed EU wide.

The transfer system we have in place within football is all we know, in that it is ingrained into us that this is how football works. Yet there are other methods available for the redistribution of talent and wealth.

Outside of the EU we have many varying models that could be implemented to safeguard the smaller clubs that survive through their ability to use the transfer market, yet the transfer market as it stands does not guarantee their survival, raising the solidarity payments will be a more effective way of ensuring the integrity of the foundations of the pyramid and may over time close the gap between competing clubs.

So going back to Mr Striani’s claim that clubs could suffer because of FFPR and the possible downturn in transfer activity for individual clubs, well hasn’t that possibility always been there?

So again another of his arguments can actually be argued against quite convincingly. And if we go back to the origins of this saga we have the Bosman case that actually attacked the transfer market itself and this is something people don’t realise or they forget. That the market itself was close to collapse and the ECJ wanted the industry to take a different approach and that’s why we had the implementation of the “player status and transfer regulations”.

The EC hoped for “contractual stability” yet the clubs still circumvent the protected period of a contract via transfer fees and the objective of a transfer fee is to solicit the selling club into ripping up a player’s employment contract and economic rights contract also the possibility of a TPPO and release the players registration with that association.  And somewhere in-between we have a person of a sporting nature lost in bureaucracy.

Written by Adam Brogden.

http://ec.europa.eu/sport/library/documents/f-studies/cons-study-transfers-final-rpt.pdf

http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/more/agents/standard-forms

 

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