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Below is the background for an item on the Radio 4 Today programme for Thursday morning. BOSMAN RULING - The Competition Commissioner Mario Monti was due to resume negotiations with FIFA and footballers' representatives this week to try and thrash out some compromise on European rules on transfer fees and free movement of workers. But Monti abruptly cancelled Friday's meeting today and hasn't rescheduled anything yet. Might it have something to do with written answer from fellow commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou - in charge of social affairs - ruling out any change to Bosman ruling? GLYN FORD MEP, chair of the European Parliament's Sports Inter Group, got the answer from her on Wednesday and claims it proves the whole saga of negotations with Monti is dead in the water as the Commission will never pass any exceptions to the law for footballers. GORDON TAYLOR has been negotiating on behalf of players in the PFA and was the one who told us the Monti meetings for Friday had been abruptly cancelled. He says the whole thing is taking far too long and needs sorting.
-- Anonymous, January 10, 2001
bold off.....
-- Anonymous, January 10, 2001
Somewhat different interpretation in this Rueters report:ZURICH (Reuters) - World soccer chiefs have asked for Friday's scheduled meeting with the European Commission over the future of player transfers to be postponed.
Representatives of world body FIFA, European counterpart UEFA and the Commission were due to meet in Brussels in an attempt to reach an agreement on a new transfer system. But FIFA said in a statement that their latest proposals had only just been finalised, and more time would be needed for all the parties to consider them.
"I think that the meeting which has been foreseen on Friday will probably be now on Tuesday (January 16)," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said in an interview with BBC radio. We had contact today with the European Commission in Brussels and they agreed they would prefer to have from our side the final paper and then to finish, I do hope, the negotiations next Tuesday."
The Commission argues the existing transfer rules break EU laws on fair competition and the right of all workers to ply their trade freely in the Union.
In December the Commission rejected two separate proposals on the issue from the joint FIFA/UEFA transfer Task Force. The main sticking point is the future status of the contract between player and club.
In a statement on Wednesday FIFA said: "With a view to making progress in the negotiations with the Commission on the reform of the international transfer system, FIFA has elaborated a document, which contains new proposals." These proposals are based on those listed in the Negotiation Document that the football authorities submitted to the European Commission at the end of October last year, but take also into account the various reactions received so far from the parties involved in the discussions.
"This new document was forwarded on Tuesday January 9 to UEFA and the players' union, FIFPro, and this morning to the European Commission. "In order to be able to examine the new FIFA proposals, UEFA has requested for an extension of the period to study the document."Blatter said he hoped an agreement would be reached if not next Tuesday, then by the end of January.
Any new regulations would then needed to be ratified by the FIFA Executive.
"If everything is working smoothly, by the end of the month of March we would be ready with new transfer regulations" he said.
Blatter said he remained confident the current system would not be scrapped in its entirety. "We received a lot of support at the European Council meeting in Nice in December when the...the heads of state of the 15 member states of the EU expressed their will that sport...should have its own specificity.
"One of the points expressly mentioned was that the autonomy of the national football associations shall be protected."
"Therefore we are very confident that there will be no scrapping of the whole transfer system. This would not be realistic, it would not be good for football and we could not accept it."
-- Anonymous, January 10, 2001
I have hopefully turned the bold off......it is very dark otherwise.
-- Anonymous, January 10, 2001
God this is getting boring is it not? I mean these protracted negotiations to protect the rights of multi millionaire employees in their dealings with multi million pound football clubs under the ludicrous guise of "workers rights!!!Jeez, the only workers in this situation are forking out vast amounts of hard earned cash to keep these aerosols in the lap of luxury for doing FA (as it were). And those workers (us) seem to have no rights at all.
If I weren't so much in love with Newcastle I'm sure I'd take up non-league football. Meynd, if Dougal's worst fears are realised, that might well happen! ;-)
-- Anonymous, January 10, 2001
DisI'm near Alty and they're non-League in a big way - they were actually the last non-league lot to beat top league opposition. They're stuffed for cash just like the rest of us. Nice little ground but not enough cash coming in = when the chairman pulls his weekly cash they have a problem.
Anybody want a football club to play with ?
-- Anonymous, January 10, 2001
Yes, as Jonno actually portrays it, this sick process consists of many rich bureaucrats faharting around for months, holding countless meeetings to discuss the in & outs of workers rights for a handful of immensely rich footballers who are doing very nicely anyway thankyou.These players have more than enough power to look after themselves, and yet still it goes on, and on, and on, and .......
Do these people - paid by our taxes - have NOTHING more important to do with their time than messing up professional football, eliminating British sausages and apples, and putting traders in jail for selling bananas by the pound to punters who largely couldn't spell kilogram never mind understand what one is?
Is it any wonder that the guy in the sreet couldn't give a flying fig for the Europe Union and its bloody stupid and misguided bureaucrats?
-- Anonymous, January 11, 2001
Jonno, agree with your posting up to a point, at a guess what you are saying only concerns one in thirty guys plying their trade. Forget about the big lads and headline makers and down the leagues their are guys playing for money certain punters on here would not get outta bed for, Already in Scotland their are clubs this year who have missed paying their players wages for a month, For the majority part time football is not so far away , lets protect the workers
-- Anonymous, January 11, 2001
Sepp Blatter was on Radio 5 last night saying that they hoped to meet next Tuesday when a resolution will be decided upon. It will take until March for that resolution to be implemented into the respective footballing authorities. His words not mine.I would expect to see some players coming into our squad after this point. Robson must have a few players lined up ready to start negotiations. If we can get a couple ofdecent signings in the right positions we can just about sail through the rough patch we've had in terms of injuries and want away players, into calmer waters with a more stable squad and one with added quality and committment to the cause.
-- Anonymous, January 11, 2001
Interesting point Buff. Will the abolition of transfers help such players? It's a serious question and I really don't know myself, but I'd have thought that the poorer clubs would just sack players if finances threatened. Under the present system at least the club is contractually bound to continue paying wages.
-- Anonymous, January 11, 2001