Vladimir Spidla, European Commissioner for Employment, Social affairs and Equal opportunities has confirmed what Untold Arsenal has said for months, that the FIFA plan to limit the number of “foreign” players in each team is completely illegal under EU law, and would be opposed by the EU.
It is now more than likely that FIFA will adopt the UEFA plan of including players who have been trained in a country as being “of” that country. But even that may not be enough.
FIFAs problem is that it is so used to demanding independence for football federations from the national government that it has no ability to understand that the EU is not to be trifled with. While the likes of Greece and Iran will bow to the threat of expulsion from FIFA for the national team, the EU, being supra-national will have none of this nonsense.
The UEFA compromise package which might just be allowable by the EU will be no problem for Arsenal, many of whose young players are are English, and many of the rest are players who would qualify under the UEFA approach.
It is however highly amusing to watch FIFA make idiots of themselves thinking they can walk rough-shod over organisations as powerful as the EU.
