Major reforms of football have moved a step closer after
European sports ministers agreed to a raft of proposals including
controls on how much clubs can pay for players' wages and
transfers.
The Independent Sports Review, the report by former Portuguese
minister Jose Luis Arnaut which contains the proposals, is to
become a key part of a European Commission (EC) white paper on
sport.
Arnaut's review calls for rules to prevent billionaire owners
"buying up all the best players", and that salary controls should
not limit what an individual player can earn but curb the total
amount clubs can spend on wages.
The latest move was agreed by a meeting of 25 European sports
ministers in Brussels on Tuesday, and six ministers - including
Britain's Richard Caborn, a key mover in attempts to reform the way
football is governed - will now form a working group to advise on
the drafting of the new legislation.
The International Olympic Committee have also been successful in
their efforts to ensure that new laws will help grassroots and
community sport as well as tackle commercial sport.
Caborn saidt: "It was a very successful meeting and we are now a
large step down the road towards securing legislation that will be
good for sport."
Caborn has been fiercely criticised by Premier League chief
executive Richard Scudamore for trying to increase government
influence over sport, and the pair will now have a meeting on the
issue in February.
The sports minister has also agreed to meetings with G14, the
grouping of elite European clubs including Manchester United,
Liverpool and Arsenal, and he will meet the European Leagues in
January.
Scudamore insists domestic football should be run from this country
without EC and UEFA interference.
He wrote in The Times: "UEFA is not and should not be the governing
body of European football - they have their own competitions to run
and should be free to do so, as we have ours.
"The idea that the rest of European football can decide what is
best for the English game is a nonsense, just as it should be down
to the Germans, French, Italians, Spanish, Dutch etc as to how they
run their leagues."
On the proposal that clubs should be limited to only spending a
proportion of their turnover on salaries, Scudamore added: "(This)
actually locks in an advantage to the big clubs, because they have
the highest turnover.
"It would also mean that the likes of Wigan, Fulham and
Middlesbrough would probably not be in the Premier League. Is this
what we really want?
"The Premier League has huge respect for Richard Caborn and the job
he does, but there is no need for a pseudo-European Sports Minister
pushing an agenda that runs counter to continued success for the
Premier League."
Issues also previously identified by Arnaut as needing attention
include some form of limit on foreign players and the urgent need
to tackle illegal gambling, money laundering, racism and the
trafficking of young players.
Somehow i feel this new rule they are working on is
targeting chelsea...