Soccer claims extra time to amend rules

Date: 03/08/00

By Peter Chapman

SOCCER'S governing body has promised to make key changes to its allegedly illegal transfer fee system by the end of this year.

FIFA officials claim Competition Commissioner Mario Monti, whose officials are poised to issue a notice outlawing the rules, has agreed to give the organisation a stay of execution until a new committee comes up with a formula to allay his concerns.

The committee, which meets next in mid-August, includes FIFA's European counterpart UEFA, European players union FIFPRO and an association of European professional leagues. "It will take some time because UEFA and FIFA think the current system is the best one," said a FIFA source. "We have until the end of the year as a deadline."

Monti argues that football players who sever their contracts in line with local labour laws should be able to play for another club without the need for additional transfer fees.

The Commissioner claims the fees currently charged often bear no resemblance to the training and development costs incurred by the club selling the player and are a blatant restriction of trade.

Sources say he is pushing for a new system under which transfer fees would be scrapped but contract-severance payments similar to those used for other workers would be allowed, so long as they were "transparent' and 'proportionate' to the training and other costs involved.

Soccer's governing body has promised to make key changes to its allegedly illegal transfer fee system by the end of 2000.