Club cries foul over unfair competition

Date: 04/07/1996

By Tim Jones

BELGIUM'S biggest football club is poised to file a complaint with the European Commission over 'unfair' competition across the Union.

RSC Anderlecht, which has won the Belgian league every second year since the Fifties, is concerned about the increasing dominance of the rich clubs in Italy, Spain and England.

This has been exacerbated by the European Court of Justice's ruling in favour of Belgian footballer Jean-Marc Bosman, allowing out-of-contract players to leave without a fee and ending restrictions on the nationality of players.

“In Europe, there are so many inequalities in the financial field,” says club manager Michel Verschueren. “Now with the Bosman decision, some countries are taking all the best players and many of these big clubs are receiving subsidies from the authorities.”

Verschueren intends to ask for a meeting with fellow Belgian, Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert to make his club's feelings known. “I am going to hand a dossier to Mr Van Miert citing Articles 85-86 of the Treaty of Rome because this is now a big problem.”

These two articles are the building blocks of the Union's anti-trust policy, banning anti-competitive agreements and unfair trading.

Belgian football clubs have long complained about the erosion of their competitive position against rivals in other countries, frequently citing France, where major clubs such as Olympique Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain receive significant subsidies from their town halls.

For many years, the French municipal authorities felt they had an interest in funding stadium maintenance and infrastructural spending at high-profile clubs - something which Anderlecht has had to manage without. The club's stadium at Parc Astrid was rebuilt over a ten-year period at a cost of 25 million ecu, paid for solely by internal finances.

However, even these subsidies have started to disappear. Public expenditure cutbacks in France have meant that a large number of these programmes will be abolished by the end of the century, a fact the Anderlecht manager acknowledges, but fears may come too late for many Belgian clubs.

“Even French players are going south now,” he says. “Look at Ajax Amsterdam too. They are the best team in Europe, but they are losing five of their top players to Italy.”

The irony of complaints about unfair competition from Anderlecht will not be lost on fans of other Belgian football teams. Since the Eighties, they have become accustomed to the Brussels giant snapping up their best young talent the moment it starts to shine.

Now, with the emergence of a genuine single European transfer market, 'les Mauves' are starting to squeal. Two seasons ago, Anderlecht lost its two star players to the English league. This summer, even defender Bertrand Crasson is going to Napoli. Anderlecht offered Crasson a new four-year contract, but Napoli offered to double his wages.

Verschueren's main complaint to the Commissioner will be the way the football industry has been treated by the Union.

“When the Commission took major decisions reforming agriculture or other industries, they always built in a period of transition, but this time it was refused,” he says, referring to the fall-out from the Bosman ruling.

“It is not normal that such an important decision with such a huge impact should be taken without a period of transition.”

He expects to talk to Van Miert as soon as possible but he stresses: “I won't be taking lawyers. That's not my style.”