Soccer rules under attack

Date: 28/05/1998

By Chris Johnstone

A DOUBLE-pronged attack on the European Commission's competition rules for football has been launched by two of the EU's big league players, Germany and Italy.

Walter Veltroni, the Italian deputy prime minister and sports minister, called on the Commission this week to reintroduce limits on the number of non-national footballers who can play in European matches. Such a move would overturn the landmark Bosman ruling which established free movement for players within the EU.

Meanwhile, Germany's upper house will vote tomorrow (29 May) on a new competition law which would exempt the sports sector from national anti-cartel rules. Parliamentary approval would clear the way for the law to take effect.

The new legislation is aimed at allowing the German Soccer Federation (DBF) to hold on to its monopoly on selling television rights for international football matches. That monopoly was ruled illegal last December by Germany's supreme court. However, Chancellor Helmut Kohl rushed to defend the practice following protests from Germany's top football clubs that they would lose vital revenue from the sale of sports rights.

Italy's Veltroni claims the support of French, Spanish and Portuguese sports ministers in his bid to change the rules on the free movement of European football players and equal rights to play in matches. He wants the Commission to introduce regulations which would allow for a maximum of five non-nationals in any soccer team at any time. "This figure is still under discussion," said a spokesman.

Such a limit would almost return the game to the pre-Bosman era when European football's ruling body only allowed teams to field three foreigners at any one time, with room for two more in the squad.

Veltroni made his call for a change in the rules at a meeting with Commissioners Karel van Miert (competition), Pádraig Flynn (social affairs) and Marcelino Oreja (audio-visual policy) this week.

The trio have, however, already prepared a solid defence against any review of the Bosman ruling, insisting that professional footballers have the same rights to work in other EU countries as all citizens. Commission officials point out that Union leaders rejected calls for a special status for sport when the issue was raised at last year's Amsterdam summit.

Van Miert has written to the German league demanding an explanation of its monopoly on television rights negotiations and expressing disquiet about the proposed change to national competition law. Germany's powerful competition authority has lined up beside the Commissioner in opposing the move to set sport above competition rules.