Bid to limit foreign players is kicked out

Date: 24/06/1999

By Tim Jones

THE European Commission has slammed the door on the latest attempt by football's international ruling body to restrict the number of foreigners playing for club sides.

The Commission's refusal to consider the new proposal from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) will come as a blow to EU clubs without the cash to poach talent throughout the Union.

"Any inventiveness on their part will not get around this," said Barbara Nolan, spokeswoman for Acting Labour Commissioner Pádraig Flynn. "They just do not get it. The European Court of Justice has ruled on this matter and there is no question of a change."

FIFA president Sepp Blatter recently called on Union sports ministers to consider changing the law to ensure that "in each team, more than half the players on the pitch - that is six players - should be eligible for selection by the national team of the country where the championship is being played".

FIFA and its European sister organisation UEFA have been increasingly dismayed at the explosion in the number of foreign nationals playing for top club sides since the ECJ ruled in favour of Belgian footballer Jean Marc Bosman in 1996. Its verdict barred clubs from charging fees for releasing players out of contract and overturned the rule allowing clubs in European competitions to field only three foreigners and two naturalised players.

Since Ajax Amsterdam coach Louis van Gaal took the reins at Barcelona, he has added five Dutch players to a squad which now boasts only six Spaniards out of 26 squad-members. If, as predicted, Chelsea sells defender Michael Duberry to pay for its acquisition of French midfielder Didier Deschamps, this will leave only two English nationals in the west London club's first team.

"The problem is very visible in Europe since all the major leagues rely heavily on foreign players," said FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren. "It is a matter of identity and the training of new players since a lot of youngsters drop out of the game if they are squeezed out of the senior side."

But Nolan said the situation would not change unless all 15 member states agree to amend Article 48 of the Treaty of Rome on the free movement of workers during the EU's next Intergovernmental Conference (IGC).

"The Bosman ruling is clear: any restrictions on the number of EU players in football clubs is incompatible with Article 48 of the treaty," said Nolan. "They tried to secure a change to the treaty during the last IGC and they failed miserably."