By Tony Attwood
By and large the football media tend to support the status quo. And they do this to keep things simple – Fifa and Uefa in charge and doing their own thing without any annoying debate as to whether what they do is morally legitimate or actually legal. PGMO agree – because that means they can continue with no one questioning why they are a secret society. The media agrees because they don’t want to lose their free tickets to big European games.
But there have been challenges, and a new one is just about to explode.
An early challenge to utter secrecy and no commentary, came from George Eastham when he refused a new contract offer from Newcastle but Newcastle refused to transfer him. Ultimately Newcastle did transfer Eastham to Arsenal but Eastham and his union the PFA took Newcastle to court and the League was forced to amend the transfer regulations.
But not amend them very much, and so the next big jump was taken out of the system with the Bosman ruling by the European Court of Justice in 1995 and then later with the Webster ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2008.
Those claims were made of course by players and were successful, and it is mimicking these claims about the system, but arguing from a club point of view, that Manchester City are now claiming that Financial Fair Play rules are actually somehow illegal!
But at the same time another case is hitting the courtroom, and interestingly the media has hardly worken up to this one. Lassana Diarra (whom you may recall) played his last game as a professional, on 20 October 2018. His case will be settled next week and if he wins that will result in more upheaval than all the other cases put together.
For in this case his lawyer is Jean-Louis Dupont, who represented Jean-Marc Bosman and who tore Uefa to shreds.
This case began 10 years ago when Diarra (who played seven times for Arsenal) was playing for Lokomotiv – who decided that it was ok to cut his salary as he wasn’t being picked for the first XI enough. Ultimately Loko ended his contract but then sued Diarra for breach of contract, and so the dispute started.
Fifa as is its habit, backed the club that finances Fifa (everyone knowing about where the butter is on the bread) and Loko demanded that Diarra pay them back the cost of his transfer fee which was €20m.
The notorious and indeed infamous Court of Arbitration for Sport, which threw out the last claim against Manchester City because it was “out of time”, agreed with Fifa (as usual) and told Diarra to pay up.
Then no one would take on Diarra because Fifa would not guarantee that any club employing him would not be sued for compensation. This of course was a clear and absolute restriction of trade, typical of arrogant Fifa and absolutely against European labour law. Fifa in fact ended the player’s career. Was Fifa acting lawfully? I’m not a lawyer, as I have said so often before, but it looks unlawful to me.
If Fifa lose the case they will have to change all their regulations. If only we had a free sporting press in this country Fifa would be so hammered that the FA would be pressurised into leaving Fifa. But we don’t and they won’t.
But Maciej Szpunar, advocate general in the European Court of Justice has said that, “There can be little doubt as to the restrictive nature of Fifa’s regulation on the status and transfer of players. By their very nature, the contested provisions limit the possibility for players to switch clubs … The contested provisions … necessarily affect competition between clubs on the market for the acquisition of professional players”.
“The consequences of a player terminating a contract without just cause are so draconian that it is highly unlikely that a player will go down this route. The contested provisions are designed in such a way as to have a deterrent effect and send a chill down each player’s spine.”
Now we must remember that European law does allow for sport to make regulations which in other situations would be illegal, because of the unique nature of sport in society. But sports have to show they are not just trying to get around laws just to suit themselves.
If Diarra wins, most serious commentators say the transfer system as it exists will end. The English media don’t agree, simply because they refuse to cover the case because it involves foreigners.
As s result of losing, Fifa would lose control of the transfer market, and that of course petrified them because Fifa and Uefa are based on entirely on the concept that they are in charge, can do anything they like, and are beyond challenge.
For years Untold and a few other websites have argued this is ludicrous, and of course we have been ignored by the UK media. They won’t recognise us now of course, but I hope you might excuse us if we find a few of our own trumpets to blow.
Especially if Uefa are thoroughly defeated.
Tony,
Whatever the outcome Football in the UK will find a way to continue as before. The media is in bed with the authorities so it’s hard to make a case against all the acronyms. Ban them all and start over. Well, it’ll never happen but still a pleasant fiction. The media don’t want to lose their perks and are resistant to change. The fans feel they have no advocate.