Premier League clubs could be prevented from
buying up football's most talented youngsters under a tough
blueprint drawn up by the six most popular team sports in
Europe.
Uefa president Michel Platini last night handed over a
confidential document to European affairs ministers in Brest,
calling on the EU to endorse self-regulation, including a ban on
under-18 transfers, a quota for foreign players and a crackdown on
financial mismanagement.
The far-reaching document, the culmination of months of
debate over restriction of trade and regarded as pivotal in the
fight against bureaucracy, could dramatically change the landscape
of sport.
It would outlaw recent transfers such as that of Aaron
Ramsey, 17, to Arsenal from Cardiff and John Bostock, 16, from
Crystal Palace to Spurs, plus cases like Theo Walcott's move from
Southampton to Arsenal.
"What is the point of clubs training players if they
are leaving younger and younger?" a Uefa source said. "The clubs
who develop properly will simply stop doing so. We are hopeful the
EU will recognise this."
Platini wants players to sign their first professional
contract with clubs that develop them to stop the cream of youth
talent abandoning their roots. His stance was backed by Germany's
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, head of the newly formed European Club
Association, which has replaced G14 as the voice of the clubs.
He says players such as Cesc Fabregas, who moved to
Arsenal from Barcelona aged 16, must be stopped from switching to
overseas clubs for minimal fees. "We have to protect these players
and this is a fruitful way to avoid players like Fabregas moving
for nothing to England," said Rummenigge.
Uefa have described teenage talent moving as "youth
trafficking" and Rummenigge added: "We at Bayern had the best
player at the last under-17 world championship, Toni Kroos, and
there were 20-odd scouts from England sitting there. It is not good
and something must be done."
