Football review report recommends major overhauls

The Independent Eurpoean Football Review has been published, recommending a number of changes, including salary caps, foreign player limitations and rules on multiple club ownerships.
 
The report asks UEFA to introduce a "fit and proper person" test for all club directors, and to make national associations implement their club licensing scheme.
 
The report, instigated by sports minister Richard Caborn and carried out by his Portuguese counterpart Jose Luis Arnaut, said UEFA should introduce measures to have balance in football, the most significant being a form of a salary cap.
 
Wages continue to increase significantly, with recent deals including GBP 130,000 a week for Michael Ballack by English Chelsea, and Thierry Henry earning GBP 120,000 a week for his new contract with English Arsenal.
 
Another recommendation is that the sport should be given a broader scope of independence for self-governing rather than having regulations constantly challenged in courts.
 
The report goes against what the power clubs, the G14 has hoped. English clubs such as Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United wanted more power and independence from football authorities.
 
The G14 are involved in a court battle with FIFA over being releasing players for international duty without compensation. The report recommends a system of legal protection for the player release rule, obliging clubs to release their players for national team duty without entitlement to compensation.
 
"In the last few months alone several European countries (Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Finland, Germany etc), have been shaken by match-fixing and corruption scandals linked to betting and to players' agents," Arnaut concluded in the report.
 
"Furthermore there has been a consistent series of legal challenges to fundamental sports rules which has undermined confidence in the system and created a climate instability.
 
"There is also a crucial need to have a formal structure for the relationship between the EU and UEFA. It seems indispensable that the EU enters into a formal agreement with UEFA which defines their legal relationship.
 
"Sports in general and football in particular are not in good health. Only the direct involvement of political leaders, working together with the football authorities, can put it back on the road to recovery.
 
"If these issues are not urgently addressed there is a real risk that the ownership of football clubs will pass into the wrong hands, the true values of the sport will be eroded, and the public will become increasingly disaffected with the beautiful game."
 
UEFA cooperated with the report, which is now to be debated over the next months, with all organisations involved expected to come up with proposals by the end of the year.
 
"Today we need action from both the EU and the sport itself, while respecting football's autonomy," said Arnaut. "We are presenting this report to the 25 European Union governments and their 25 parliaments."

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.