EU and UEFA undertake major review of football

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The European Union and UEFA took the first step in a review in a review of the management and organization of football in a meeting in Brussels. UEFA chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson, EU Education and Culture Commissioner Jan Figel and UK Sports Minister Richard Caborn attended the first meeting, which laid out a timetable for the review. UEFA was given the role of spearheading the review at a meeting last December in Leipzig, a meeting attended by FIFA president Sepp Blatter. The review, scheduled to be completed in May, will focus on how European football clubs and the EU can best implement the Nice Declaration on the specifics of sport at the European and national level. Specifically, the meetings will look at the “home-grown player” rule, the role of agents and distribution of revenues.

Olsson said the group would forward their proposals to FIFA in the coming weeks. Also to be discussed is the “Charleroi case”, involving the compensation for a player injured on international duty for Morocco. The “home-grown” player rule was agreed upon in a UEFA meeting held in Estonia last April. Starting next season, any club participating in UEFA club competitions must have at least four “home-grown” players on its roster • defined as a player who has been with the club for three seasons or years between the ages of 15 and 21. It’s not clear if the rule is a violation of EU law.