Thursday, 20th June, 2013
A lawyer who helped revolutionise UEFA and FIFA rules on player movements between clubs, in what became known as the Bosman Ruling, has trained his sights on the Financial Fair Play system, calling it "illegal".
Jean-Louis Dupont, who was part of the legal team that represented Jean-Marc Bosman in 1995 to remove restrictions around players’ ability to change clubs, is working to revise fiscal rules that UEFA were, until now, hailing as a success.
Under the FFP rules, clubs who spend more than their revenue streams bring in will be subject to sanctions, a small impact of which was seen in recent rulings where Malaga were one of three clubs barred from Europe.
The cause for the ban was the inability to pay overdue bills, which was a precursor of sorts to the break-even assessment and data collection, which UEFA hopes to analyse in 2013/2014.
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However, Dupont has stated that the ruling to limit spending for clubs would impact on their ability to break traditional monopolies held by already-wealthy clubs.
Dupont has been commissioned by sports agent Daniel Striani to challenge the FFP rules, and a question has been put in Belgium’s Court of First Instance by the lawyer.
"They hinder the growth of a club", Dupont was quoted in the Algemeen Dagblad as saying of the FFP rules. "Teams will not be allowed to spend more than they earn.
"But how can you prohibit a club owner from investing his own money into his own club?"
With clubs such as Manchester City and Real Madrid arguably the biggest spenders in the second decade of this century, while Chelsea have splashed the cash too, players have had incredibly high transfer fees, while UEFA wants to "decrease pressure on… transfer fees and limit inflationary effect".
However, Dupont, speaking on behalf of his client, argued that FFP rules were actually going against the grain of free movement for players, a ruling that 18 years ago changed the face of football in the world.
A statement read: "Daniel Striani hopes that the Brussels Court will ask a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the European Union so that they can judge whether the new regulations of UEFA are legal.
"Daniel Striani is sure that the UEFA rules are contrary to European law and notes that there are a lot more efficient alternatives, including a review of the allocation of profits from the European leagues."
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