Press Release

29/01/2007

The Future of Professional Football. Rapporteur Ivo Belet encourages more self-regulation

The Culture & Education Committee of the European Parliament today adopted the report by Belgian MEP Ivo Belet (EPP-ED) on the future of professional football in Europe with a large majority.

Parliament's primary objectives are to tackle the legal uncertainty surrounding football, to provide an answer to negative evolutions (money laundering, fraud, gambling, etc.) and to stimulate a competitive balance.

Ivo Belet said: "As football has both an economic and non-economic dimension, it finds itself in a legal vacuum which leads to a proliferation of court cases and corruption. Given the important social and educational role of football, we can't just watch this sport being ruled by case law and being eroded by business interests. Parliament therefore encourages the responsible governing bodies to better regulate their own activities."

A crucial element for Parliament is the creation of a level playing field. Belet continued: "To guarantee financial stability and a competitive balance between teams, we encourage the development of a cost-control system that could be integrated in the UEFA licensing system. We don't want to impose new regulation here; we are asking that the responsible organisations themselves develop such a system." Furthermore, Parliament is in favour of an independent supervisory body monitoring the financial activities of clubs, again to be set up by the football organisations themselves.

In addition, Parliament supports UEFA’s 'home-grown players' measure which requires teams to have a minimum set number of locally-trained players. As clubs often give contracts to very young players, additional measures are required to avoid child trafficking.

Parliament also wants strict standards and criteria concerning players’ agents, preferably to be established via the self-regulatory approach. If UEFA is unsuccessful in setting up an efficient system, Parliament asks the Commission to present a proposal for a directive.

The EP plenary vote is scheduled for March (date to be confirmed).

Note to Editors: The football report is the result of a year of intensive work and consultation with the main stakeholders of European professional football. The EP worked according to the so-called intelligent cooperation-procedure involving 5 parliamentary committees: Economic and Monetary Affairs, Employment and Social Affairs, Legal Affairs, Internal Market and Consumer Protection and Culture & Education (as leading committee with Ivo Belet as rapporteur).

Annex: Why this Report?


For further information:
Greet Gysen, EPP-ED Press Service, Tel: +32 497 028054