Footballers’ union FIFPro has lodged a legal complaint with the European Commission against Federation Internationale de Football Association in the hope of overhauling the transfer system.
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The transfer system, where players are traded between clubs for fees running into tens of millions of euros, is so deeply ingrained that it is hard to imagine the sport without it.
“We believe that it is possible in smaller countries to have an attractive national competition and that balance has to be there, otherwise in a couple of years we will only have 30 clubs in the world, and nobody wants that”, said FIFPro secretary-general Theo van Seggelen. “I have been used to negotiating my whole career, with FIFPro and the Dutch union”.
The players’ union submitted its complaint weeks after the English Premier League, arguably the world’s preeminent professional soccer league, saw record spending in its summer transfer window.
“You have to think about squad size limits – you can’t have a Manchester City squad with 60 players – and we have to forbid the loan system. But it has come to an end”, Van Seggelen said.
It has suggested abolishing transfer fees and replacing them with a bargaining system.
If Fifpro get their way, their proposed changes would have the biggest impact on football seen since the Bosman ruling granted players freedom of movement in 1995.
“If we win this case and the European Commission declares it illegal, it will be like what happened after Bosman”, Van Seggelen told The Guardian.
Fifpro will claim that the opt out from European law agreed under a 2001 settlement had not been adhered to and are no longer in the public interest.
Van Seggelen however reassured big clubs, saying that they had nothing to fear with what Fifpro was seeking. The contracts will be shorter.
This could shake up the way transfers are handled in the professional game as it could bring about the end of transfer fees and, in effect, could make it easier for players to move all meanwhile taking into consideration current contracts.
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On the other hand, FIFPro says that if a player breaches a contract, he is suspended for four months and must pay compensation based on his market value which could run into several years’ wages. “Balanced fairly against the needs of clubs, together with an improved model of revenue distribution, we will safeguard football’s future”.
