Post by QPR Report on Apr 18, 2009 8:27:36 GMT
Sepp Blatter's 'six plus five' plan wins support from MPs
Blatter will get backing from MPs for his controversial plan
Significant backing for imposing quotas on the numbers of foreign players in English football clubs is to come from a powerful group of MPs and peers.
The All Party Parliamentary Football Group will publish its findings on Monday after a year-long investigation into the state of English football and it is understood it will reignite the row between Barclays Premier League officials and Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president leading the charge to adopt the “six plus five” rule.
The Blatter rule would demand that each team in the Premier League fields a minimum of six players eligible to play for England. The Premier League has discounted the plan as unworkable and hidden behind the defence of European law that states that workers must have freedom of movement within European Union (EU) boundaries.
Blatter has also been rebuffed by EU officials in Brussels, who insist that footballers are governed by the same rule of law as any other workers. But the parliamentary group, which includes influential figures from all parties, such as Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative Party, is said to have emerged from its inquiry shocked at the paucity of opportunity for young English players and will challenge the legal defence put up by the Premier League.
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Blatter gets backing for quota system
The committee is thought to have consulted its own legal experts, who have given the view that the six plus five rule in football would not be illegal under European law. Blatter is also thought to have been told by key members of the parliamentary group that they would expect the British Government to be prepared to call on the EU to apply an exemption for football in any case so that the six plus five rule could be introduced. The key demand that would change the face of English football is just one of 27 recommendations covering the governance and financial stability of the game, particularly the Premier League.
Even with the recession diving to a new low point, the Premier League is awash with money, with players’ wages breaking the £1 billion-a-year mark at a time of mass unemployment and pay cuts for thousands of supporters. It is thought that the parliamentary group will highlight the concerns of those thousands of fans that football in England is unbalanced, with the rich getting substantially richer while the rest make do and mend, or crash into financial trouble trying to keep up with the top clubs.
With three teams — Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal — contesting the semi-finals of the Champions League, the Premier League can claim to be the most powerful in the world.
But the pulsating quarter-final tie on Tuesday night between Chelsea and Liverpool merely underlined the evidence collected by the parliamentary group, with only three of the players on the pitch eligible to play for England.
The parliamentary group, which has no power but wields considerable influence throughout Westminster, wants to see much more development of young English players and a fairer distribution of wealth, both to clubs lower down the league and also into grassroots football, where the players of the future are developed in youth clubs and minor Sunday leagues.
Its concerns also stretch to the levels of debt being built up throughout the game and it is thought to be worried about the ownership of clubs and could ask the Premier League to strengthen its “fit and proper persons test”, which is applied to potential new owners for clubs.
That view will not have been shaken by the shenanigans at Manchester City, who were bought by Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Prime Minister of Thailand, who was then forced to sell the club on to the Abu Dhabi United Group after running up colossal debts and leaving Britain to face corruption charges in his home country. He is now living in exile.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article6115611.ece
Blatter will get backing from MPs for his controversial plan
Significant backing for imposing quotas on the numbers of foreign players in English football clubs is to come from a powerful group of MPs and peers.
The All Party Parliamentary Football Group will publish its findings on Monday after a year-long investigation into the state of English football and it is understood it will reignite the row between Barclays Premier League officials and Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president leading the charge to adopt the “six plus five” rule.
The Blatter rule would demand that each team in the Premier League fields a minimum of six players eligible to play for England. The Premier League has discounted the plan as unworkable and hidden behind the defence of European law that states that workers must have freedom of movement within European Union (EU) boundaries.
Blatter has also been rebuffed by EU officials in Brussels, who insist that footballers are governed by the same rule of law as any other workers. But the parliamentary group, which includes influential figures from all parties, such as Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative Party, is said to have emerged from its inquiry shocked at the paucity of opportunity for young English players and will challenge the legal defence put up by the Premier League.
Related Links
Ferguson supports Blatter's home-grown plan
Blatter fires broadside at ‘greedy English’
Blatter gets backing for quota system
The committee is thought to have consulted its own legal experts, who have given the view that the six plus five rule in football would not be illegal under European law. Blatter is also thought to have been told by key members of the parliamentary group that they would expect the British Government to be prepared to call on the EU to apply an exemption for football in any case so that the six plus five rule could be introduced. The key demand that would change the face of English football is just one of 27 recommendations covering the governance and financial stability of the game, particularly the Premier League.
Even with the recession diving to a new low point, the Premier League is awash with money, with players’ wages breaking the £1 billion-a-year mark at a time of mass unemployment and pay cuts for thousands of supporters. It is thought that the parliamentary group will highlight the concerns of those thousands of fans that football in England is unbalanced, with the rich getting substantially richer while the rest make do and mend, or crash into financial trouble trying to keep up with the top clubs.
With three teams — Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal — contesting the semi-finals of the Champions League, the Premier League can claim to be the most powerful in the world.
But the pulsating quarter-final tie on Tuesday night between Chelsea and Liverpool merely underlined the evidence collected by the parliamentary group, with only three of the players on the pitch eligible to play for England.
The parliamentary group, which has no power but wields considerable influence throughout Westminster, wants to see much more development of young English players and a fairer distribution of wealth, both to clubs lower down the league and also into grassroots football, where the players of the future are developed in youth clubs and minor Sunday leagues.
Its concerns also stretch to the levels of debt being built up throughout the game and it is thought to be worried about the ownership of clubs and could ask the Premier League to strengthen its “fit and proper persons test”, which is applied to potential new owners for clubs.
That view will not have been shaken by the shenanigans at Manchester City, who were bought by Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Prime Minister of Thailand, who was then forced to sell the club on to the Abu Dhabi United Group after running up colossal debts and leaving Britain to face corruption charges in his home country. He is now living in exile.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article6115611.ece