Move to give sport special status attacked

Date: 30/03/2000

By Peter Chapman

THE European Commission has criticised moves by the Portuguese presidency to add a new protocol to the Union's treaty which would allow sports to be given special treatment.

Portuguese Internal Affairs Minister Fernando Gomes announced plans earlier this month to set up a working group to consider the idea. But the Commission fears the move would be exploited by soccer's ruling bodies, UEFA and FIFA, which want to be given greater freedom to sell commercial rights to competitions without falling foul of the Union's tough anti-trust rules. "The protocol is not necessary," insisted one senior Commission source. "UEFA and FIFA are looking for one because they want monopolies for everything."

He said the Commission would also resist calls for the sector to be exempted from EU rules governing the free movement of Union citizens.

The clamour for changes to the EU treaty follows the landmark 1995 European Court of Justice ruling in the Bosman case that soccer clubs could not stop players from leaving at the end of their contracts and sports associations did not have the right to limit the number of players in a team from other member states.

Hard-up clubs claim this has effectively prevented them from training players and selling them at a profit when their contracts expire. Players' associations say the ruling has also prompted an influx of players from countries such as Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands into richer leagues in other member states.

But Commission sources deny the judgement is the cause of all the sport's problems and argue it would be unfair to allow sports bodies to restrict EU citizens' freedom of movement if the same right was not conferred on other sectors. This would, they add, be the beginning of the end for the single market.

"FIFA and UEFA have a starting point which is bad. They say all the problems of sport are coming from Bosman. We say this is too much. Bosman is a factor, but there are other issues such as television money, developing competition from the Internet and Playstations," said one.

Officials add that while Culture Commissioner Viviane Reding is striving to boost the role of sport in Union policy, she is concentrating on stepping up efforts to combat doping and finding legitimate ways to offset the effects of the Bosman ruling.

This includes the possibility that clubs could voluntarily decide to restrict the number of players from other member states and that sports bodies could agree to limit the proportion of non-EU players on teams. Reding, who plans to hold a high-level conference with sports bodies next month to discuss these issues, also favours allowing clubs to draw up special contracts under which they would agree to train young players who would, in exchange, agree to stay with the club for a set period of time.

The European Commission has criticised moves by the Portuguese Presidency to add a new protocol to the Union's treaty which would allow sports to be given special treatment.