FIFA's Blatter warns of war with EU over sports reforms
06/07/2007 |
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FIFA have warned of a pending "war" with the European Union over its planned reforms on how sports should be run in its 27 member states.
The EU executive is due to unveil the proposals for new laws soon and its findings could have a massive impact on the way soccer and other sports are governed throughout the EU.
Sports bodies such as FIFA, world soccer's governing body and UEFA, which governs European soccer, and diverse politicians have criticised a draft of a white paper.
They say it is too vague on key points such as multibillion-euro television rights and nurturing young players, and potentially creating more court cases rather than less, one of its chief aims.
"We do not want war," FIFA chief Sepp Blatter told an International Olympic Committee session in Guatemala City on Thursday.
"I ask you Mr President to take the reins so that Brussels does not present an irreversible document," he said, addressing IOC President Jacques Rogge.
"The European politicians should leave sport in peace," Blatter, an IOC member, said. "We cannot allow a political, however strong, to undermine the basis of sport. I ring this alarm bell because it is an imminent problem... there is direct intervention on how sport is run."
Following a number of court cases in recent years in soccer and other sports, politicians and sports chiefs want more legal certainty from the strategy paper which will also cover areas such as doping, security, racism, gambling, players' agents and ownership.
Sport was given informal "specificity" or special exemption from EU rules by ministers under an EU treaty signed in Nice in 2000. But that status was not made legally binding.
The lack of definition has been central to many court challenges in recent years, most notably soccer's "Bosman ruling" in 1995 which gave all sports professionals within the EU more freedom to change clubs.
Rogge said he fully agreed with Blatter, adding: "We will fight together."
(Source: Reuters)
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