| Author (Person) | Chapman, Peter |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.10, No.23, 24.6.04 |
| Publication Date | 24/06/2004 |
| Content Type | News |
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By Peter Chapmanv Date: 24/06/04 IT WAS September 2000 and yet another pivotal moment at the United Nations. Romano Prodi was sitting next to Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder at the millennium summit. The phone went. It was an important call. There was hushed silence as the Italian lifted the handset. Prodi nodded and smiled. "That was my Commissioner Viviane Reding," the Italian announced. "She says it is OKm we are on course for a deal on transfer fees." The trio, all football fans, breathed a collective sigh of relief before switching their attentions to Kofi Annan. With tension like that, who dares to say EU sports policy is not vitally important? Not the sporting federations, which have been quietly waging a lobbying battle over the wording of Article 182 of the draft EU constitution, which went into extra time last week at the Brussels summit. In common with other sports federations, European soccer's governing body, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), sought an explicit distinction between itself and the commercial world, which is governed by the full rigours of competition and state aid rules. Jonathan Hill, UEFA's European affairs manager, says sports bodies need scope to raise cash commercially, for example through the collective selling of TV rights for tournaments such as the ongoing Euro 2004 championship in Portugal - a practice that would normally be frowned upon by the authorities. The money they make can then be redistributed to help keep the grass-roots levels of the game alive, for example to pay for referee training in Slovenia or coaching courses for young Poles. "We should not be treated in the same way as refrigerator or washing-machine businesses," says Hill. "We don't think what we do is about free competition where you would want to damage your competitors." UEFA had originally pushed for stronger wording that would have recognized the "autonomy" of sports governing bodies such as itself, global organization the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) and the International Olympic Committee. This, Hill says, would have "simply underlined that, when it comes to running sports, the people best placed to do that are the sports bodies themselves". But the idea, initially agreed by sports ministers, was considered a step too far by their political superiors. Their scepticism was shared by G14 - the Brussels-based group of the richest football teams in Europe, who feared that it would have given the federations too much leeway to crowd out others from the commercial side of their sport. Despite the excitement though, the result was a scrappy score-draw. The final shape of Article 182 mentions that the EU recognizes the "specific nature of sport", but little else. UEFA's Hill admits that the wording "is pretty vague". "It is very much open to interpretation and the truth of the matter is that Article 182 is not the end of the affair. It is the start of it. "But we are fairly confident. The way we interpret it is that sport is not like another industry but has specific characteristics that make it different." In practice, Hill believes that Europe's first-ever constitution will ensure that the European Commission continues its recent practice of taking into account the legitimate interests of sporting bodies when it applies the competition rules - albeit without giving them an open goal. It should also mean that national competition authorities, which have taken an increased role in the application of anti-trust rules, do the same. Examples of recent policies include the transfer fees saga, which liberalized the market for players after a long EU-level investigation. But strict transfer windows were included to make sure tournaments would not be ruined by a free-for-all trade. Mario Monti, Europe's competition commissioner, also recently gave UEFA the go-ahead for the collective sale of commercial rights - normally frowned upon - to Champions' League matches, under certain provisos designed to ensure more competition. Meanwhile, G14's General Manager Thomas Kurth takes a relaxed view. "We understand that the constitution grants sport a certain independence - but only as far as mere sporting actions are concerned," he says, adding: "That seems quite fair to us. Football is a sport but it is also an industry." Kurth's group is involved in a dispute with FIFA over rules that prevent clubs from being consulted on the calendar for international tournaments and also from receiving any compensation when their expensive players are involved in matches for their country. However, he believes there are examples of "sporting actions' in which FIFA's intervention is entirely justified: for example, in setting and enforcing rules governing the kit that football teams should wear - even though equipment manufacturers, sponsors and some supporters may disagree. Thus, Kurth believes FIFA was "within its rights" when it punished the Cameroon international team for wearing tight-fitting leotard-style strips rather than the regulation shirt and shorts. Aides to Viviane Reding agree with the competition policy analysis. They say the biggest impact of the constitution is likely to be the prospect, for the first time, of formal EU sports ministerials, at which ministers will be able to set the political agenda for sports. One idea might be to agree in future to coordinate their bids for events such as the Olympics or football's World Cup - usually the subject of tough scraps between EU cities and states. Member states' ministers could, for example, ask the Commission to run special sports-related funding programmes. The Union's executive is already working on ideas - such as projects to boost cross-border vocational training of coaches. This, say the experts, could be modelled on the "Erasmus" education-exchange programme that allows students to study for part of their degree courses at a university in another member state. Other projects could target obesity - a looming danger to EU health. If and when the constitution is ratified by national parliaments and referenda, sports ministers will have far more thrills and spills in the political arena. But whether or not they have any real power depends on more far mundane issues - such as the EU's budget. Major feature which looks at Article 182 of the newly agreed text for the Constitutional Treaty for Europe, which outlines the European dimension in the areas of sport, education, youth and vocational, and the relief felt by international and European football interests. |
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