Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Agenda:
1. Enforcing the utilization of club-grown and grown
players in domestic and continental competition.
2. Problems with inter-continental European Matches.
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ECA Workshops
In order to allow ECA Member Clubs to exchange views and ideas on specific topics
of interest, ECA regularly organises workshops with the participation of club experts
and external specialists. These workshops are organised exclusively for ECA Member
Clubs and take place at least once per season.
The aim of these workshops is not limited to exchanging thoughts and know-how, but
also to gather opinions and information on common interests, formulate common
goals and try to anticipate future developments. All participants are always invited to
share their experiences and ideas relating to the relevant topic in an extensive Q&A
Session following the expert presentations. So far, ECA organised six different
workshops on the following topics:
http://www.ecaeurope.com/about-eca/events--activities/
STAK EHOLDER RELATIONS
In order to further develop the European club game, ECA maintains close ties with all
stakeholders involved in club football. Healthy relations with the football governing
bodies and institutions at European Union level are of outmost importance to ECA.
ECA enjoys an extremely fruitful partnership with UEFA, which has led to some major
achievements for club football over the past couple of years.
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http://www.ecaeurope.com/about-eca/stakeholder-relations/
Footnotes:
1.
2.
3.
http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/EuroExperience/uefaorg/Clubs/02/22/99/41/2229941_DOWNLOAD.p
df
http://www.ecaeurope.com/Legal/ECA%20Statutes%20and%20Organisational%20Regulations/Edition%202013.pdf
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/20/us-soccer-world-fifa-idUSKBN0MG1I320150320
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P ART B: AGENDA 1
-gr o wn and gr o wn player s in do m estic
What?
(UEFA) defines,
Why?
The debate of the inclusion of home-grown and club-grown players is one that has
been ongoing for the past decade. Ever since the Eu
Bosman ruling in 1995, one of the biggest challenges posed to European club football is
that the richest clubs have been able to hoard the best players, thus making it easier
for them to dominate in both domestic and contine
brainchild, the Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations, which was implemented by the
UEFA on a continental level and several football associations on a domestic level,
appeared to put a quick
rag to riches stories
clubs that spent excessively, it appears things have gone South once again. The
monstrous growth in television & sponsorship revenue in the recent years has enabled
clubs to dig deeper into their pockets and use the transfer market to fill out their team
sheets rather than their own academy.
Traditionally speaking, football clubs have gone from being a local/communal identity
to an international business brand that employs corporate greed over a sense of
sporting purpose when it comes to filling out their team sheets. Raking in hundreds of
millions in revenue, clubs in this era particularly have fewer incentives to train their
own players or give a genuine chance to young players from their region. This trend is
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Unless the utilization of these players is enforced by the authorities, clubs will not be
encouraged to carry out local training of young players, and this will consequently
decrease the openness and fairness of European competitions phenomenally. And as
stated earlier, by giving in to this trend of hoarding good players from overseas and
eliminating their reliance on the local pool of talented youngsters, clubs also lose their
local/communal identities which is essentially what they represent or is their
existential purpose so to speak.
History
The question of limiting foreign players in the starting line-ups and promoting use of
domestic players has been around since 1999. FIFA & UEFA together, in the past
decade,
rule stated that at the beginning of each match, each club must field at least six players
eligible to play for the national team of the country of the club. However, there were
no restrictions on the number of foreign players fielded or on the substitutes to avoid
non-sportive constraints on the coaches, which meant the match could potentially end
with 3+8 players on the field i.e. 8 foreign players.
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The objective of this rule was to restore the national identity of football clubs that
have increasingly resorted to fielding foreign players in their squad. It was also
intended as a measure to reduce the increasing gap between the larger and smaller
football clubs. The following terms were set as the preamble by FIFA for the
1. The foundations of football are harmony and balance between national team
football and club football.
2. The clubs' loss of national identity is endangering the former and has led to
increasing inequality among the latter, thereby widening the financial and
sporting gap between the two, reducing the competitiveness of club
competitions and increasing the predictability of their results.
3. Safeguarding
a. the education and training of young players,
b. training clubs, and
c. the values of effort and motivation in football, particularly for young
players, is a fundamental element of protecting national teams and
restoring sporting and financial balance to club football.
4. The universal development of football over the last century would not continue
if there were increasing inequalities between continents, countries and
protagonists in football.
With these in mind FIFA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with FIFPro on
November 2006 that stated that they had agreed to an incremental implementation of
the rule starting at the beginning of the 2010 11 season to give clubs time to adjust
their teams over a period of several years.
However, the 6+5 rule was dismissed as illegal by the European Union and was
rejected by the European Parliament on 9 May 2008. The rule was said to be violating
both Article 48 of the EC Treaty and the Bosman ruling following which FIFA
President Sepp Blatter met with representatives of European football leagues to explain
the new rule and to garner support for it. At an informal meeting of the European
sports ministers in Biarritz in November 2008, where FIFA was seeking support for its
proposed rule, it was declared by the ministers that they wish to "encourage further
discussion on initiatives put forward by international federations to encourage the
teams of professional clubs in each country to develop the presence of athletes capable
of qualifying for national teams, in compliance with EU law, to strengthen the regional
and national roots of professional sport . However, EU commissioners repeated their
standpoint that the "6+5 rule was based on direct discrimination on the grounds of
nationality, and was thus against one of the fundamental principles of EU law.The
independent Institute for European Affairs (INEA) was then commissioned by FIFA to
investigate whether the rule was legal under the erstwhile EU law and on 26 February
2009, the INEA released an expert opinion declaring that the 6+5
can be
implemented in line with European Community law. However, a little over a year
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later, in June 2010, the ruling was scrapped by the European Commission as it deemed
that such a proposal would contravene EU labour laws.
Despite numerous futile attempts to implement the rule, the following declarations
were made on the resolution which was adopted during the FIFA Congress in Sydney
on 29 and 30 May 2008.
Member associations of FIFA decide to:
1. fully support the objectives of "6+5" as laid down at the above Congress,
2. request the presidents of FIFA and UEFA to continue to explore for Europe,
together with the world of sport
football's protagonists, but also the
International Olympic Committee and the international federations
all
possible means within the limits of the law to ensure that these crucial sporting
objectives be achieved,
3. give the FIFA President the mandate to, if necessary, take similar steps on the
other continents in co-operation with the relevant confederation.
Following this resolution, several sporting bodies started to look at alternative means
to achieve a similar outcome. UEFA on the other hand was well aware of the
working on a different regulation, one that promoted usage of academy players, on the
-grown and club-grown
players regulations
regulations did not discriminate based on nationality nor did they seek to implement a
quota on the team for domestic players over the foreign players. Home-grown & Clubgrown player regulations were clearly defined such that players can qualify under
either of these categories regardless of their nationality and this helped avoid conflict
implement mandatory changes in the starting line-up, the Home-grown & Club-grown
player regulations only seek to include academy players in the overall squad and thus
cannot effect control over the team fielded by the clubs during matches. Though UEFA
can be credited for trying to bring about a change, fact is that these regulations have
done little to convince teams to return to old ways of using their academy products
over foreign imports.
One key point to note, however, is that the Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations
implemented by the UEFA is itself under review with court cases pending over
allegations that it is not in line with the EU Law and is in violation of laws governing
undesirable business practices and is therefore illegal. Considering sanctions have
already been issued on clubs found violating these regulations when the regulations
rule,
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which
complications.
http://www.uefa.com/news/newsid=943393.html
http://www.soccertimes.com/wagman/1999/dec20.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6%2B5_rule
http://www.e-comlaw.com/sportslawblog/template_permalink.asp?id=99
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P ART C: AGENDA 2
-
What?
European football, be it club football or international football, is recently faced with a
plethora of issues that need addressing. A wide range of these issues have been
repeatedly discussed in the past ranging from the use of technology to aid referees, to
structural reforms in the existing setup of continental competitions and extent of fan
control in day to day club activities specifically focusing on fan-owned clubs, usage of
fireworks inside the stadium, hooliganism and in extreme cases, even racism.Repeated
dialogue on these issues on various platforms have failed to translate into concrete
solutions citing complications such as lack of legal clarity, run-ins with unethical
practices, etc. Considering we live in the 21st century,where the sport has evolved into
a lot more than just weekend entertainment and given the sense of attachment it
induces in its followers, as overseeing bodies, we cannot let it be marred by such
hindrances that are a blatant threat to the integrity & spirit of the sport and can
potentially uproot the passion millions have for it. ECA, as a body with legal
capabilities and one which maintains constant association with other legal bodies, can
foster the necessary solution-oriented talks and work with these entities on
establishing frameworks that can bring about these reforms.
Why?
Use of technology to aid referees
Needless to say, evolution of technology has increased human reliance on it and it is
only natural for lovers of the sport to think that introduction of technology in the sport
can help referees make better decisions and help reduce blunders that often change the
game. The reason for increasing calls on usage of technology is simple the inability of
referees and linesmen to make calls when out of position or not in view of the incident
in question and the
The debate over the introduction of goal-line technology was prolonged and the saga
eventually ended with FIFA giving in to the demands after several high-profile errors
were committed that vastly affected a few results in recent tournaments. However,
FIFA &the confederational authorities have always maintained an apprehensive
outlook towards usage of technology. Goal-line technology is just one of the several
other reasons due to which there have been calls for allowing officials to use video
technology or other means to review incidents before making a decision.
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values itself, preservation of universality of the game i.e. the game must incorporate
the same rules at every level of play. FIFA President Sepp Blatter argued that
implementation of technology would not be feasible below the top level of
competition, thus negating the universal nature of the game. Additionally, he pointed
out that the usage of technology to review decisions would affect the fluidity with
which the game is played. In other sports, replay technology demands a break in the
action, which is a luxury that cannot be accommodated in football due to its
continuous nature. Arguments were also made that the implementation of technology
others. This was the case post-implementation of goal-line technology whereby
several stakeholders (club owners, football associations, player bodies) called for the
implementation of video technology to review offside calls, penalty incidents and
other game-changing on-field offargument ties extensively
into the fluidity of the game, which will be interrupted if every controversial call made
by the referee in a match requires confirmation by replay technology. But stakeholders
claim that the usage of technology eliminates the need for retrospective action on
infringers, which are often debatable, and thus allowsfor them to be handled within
the scope of the rules of the game (i.e. on-pitch).
Hence, usage of technology is a problem that remains a question yet to be answered in
football matches and if the ECA can pioneer reforms in this area (limited to European
matches),it can spur a worldwide change of practices in the sport.
cup-winners from each of the member associations& top-placed clubs in the UEFA Fair
Play Index. Top clubs from the higher-ranked member associations are given an
automatic berth in the group-stage of the competition and hence
through the qualification phase. The number of automatic seats allotted to each
member association of UEFA in the group stage is proportionate to their positioning in
the coefficients ranking table. The format is nearly identical to that of the Champions
League. However, contentions arose owing to the fact that nearly 160 clubs compete
in the qualifying phase but only 22 make it out to the group-stage, most of which are
once again teams from top-ranked associations.
The main contention here is that, at the end of the day, only clubs belonging to about
40 of the 54 UEFA member associations get a taste of real continental football. The
remaining member associations claim that they have little to no representation in these
competitions and the chances of improving domestic football within their nations are
heavily hampered due to constantly being kept out of these competitions by having to
participate in a qualifying phase and face bigger teams before the main competition
even starts. Another issue with the qualifying round is that the clubs from lowerranked associations have to go through nearly four rounds of qualification matches
before securing a berth in the main group-stage. This means that they have to play 8
games i.e. 4 progressive two-legged knockout rounds before they can even play in the
actual tournament.
Now even though all of this happens in the UEFA Champions League as well, problem
is with the Europa League in general because of several reasons. Europa League,unlike
its predecessor the UEFA Cup, due to both its elaborate format & the increased
number of teams, has more games to be played and thus requires participating teams
to be engaged in both domestic & continental football throughout the season. Europa
League also lacks the level of commercial coverage that the Champions League gets
due to not being the premier continental competition. This essentially means that the
competition prize pool & broadcasting revenue sharing pool are drastically reduced, to
at best asixth of that of the Champions League (combined). Therefore, more teams,
more games, but much lesser money with much lesser representation has discouraged
a lot of teams from taking part in the competition. There have been several instances
of teams that have qualified contemplating withdrawal from the competition owing to
lack of financial incentives and heightened expenditures due to having to travel abroad
for more games than before.
Another problem with Europa League is that the matches happen on Thursdays to
compensate for lack of commercial coverag
Champions League matches. UEFA saw this as an option that would attract more
broadcasters and thus more revenue, but it turned out to be even more of a headache
as it disrupted the domestic league schedules of the member associations. With
domestic matches being played on weekends, Europa League matches on Thursday
means teams constantly find themselves playing 2 matches in a span of 4 days. If the
constant travel and the stretched continental schedule
long-term effect on
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Perhaps, the worst of all, is fan-led racism within stadiums during football matches.
Racism, although a concept much thought to be something the modern world has
still very much prevalent in countries such as Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain & Turkey
and this has often deterred players whose ancestry can be traced to other continents
(African countries especially) from plying their trade in these countries. There have
been several instances where the club owners themselves have encouraged fan-led
racism by allowing them put up racist banners, leading on racist chants and throwing
bananas onto the field of play. Many players, notably Mario Balotelli& Kevin-Prince
Boateng, both of whom have Ghanaian roots but are citizens of European nations,
have stormed off the pitch following racial abuse targeted towards them by fans.
Problems such as these must be rectified by clubs and the owners must ensure that the
spirit of the game is upheld. Members of the ECA play a vital role in discussing
measures to counter such fan-led activities that hinder the sport and prevent clubs
from growing by constantly throwing their reputation under the bus.
Questions the discussions are expected to answer
How can the need for real-time usage of technology in football be justified?
What are advantages & disadvantages of using technology to review decisions
in football?
To what extent are the existing problems in the continental club football setup
affecting clubs and its players?
What possible reforms can be made to the existing continental football setup to
ensure the growth of football clubs and the sport itself in lower-ranked nations?
To what extent is fan control possible in football?
How can clubs exert better control over fans during football matches?
What are the other problems affecting European football and the effective
solutions to tackle them?
References & Further Research
1. http://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/world-cup-guides/world-cup-2014/the-2010-south-africaworld-cup-highlights-politics-lessons-for-brazil/technology-instant-replay-and-goal-linetechnology/
2. http://www.givemesport.com/397700-uefa-must-reform-the-europa-league
3. www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/20523405
4. www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/uefa-consider-third-european-clubcompetition-alongside-champions-league-and-europa-league-10505107.html
5. http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/465467/Alan-Pardew-Europa-LeagueCrystal-Palace-Tottenham-Hotspur
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Super_League_(association_football)
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_hooliganism
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8. http://news.sky.com/story/1464099/labour-backs-fan-control-of-football-clubs
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both the agendas and form links between them. This is absolutely crucial to the
committee as the Executive Board expects a smooth transition from one agenda
to the other and the possibility of a unanimous outcome relies heavily on the
The information provided in the beginning with regard to the administrative
structure of the ECA and the founding agreements of the organisation are there
to serve as a reminder of the capabilities of this committee. The Executive
Board urges all delegates to act in their respective capacities and undertake all
measures necessary to achieve a favourable outcome for their club as a member
of the ECA.
Delegates are urged to visit the sites mentioned earlier and do a scan of their
archives for more detailed research. It is advised that delegates go through the
pages containing several opinionated articles, interviews with club staff &
officials of governing authorities to develop a deeper understanding of the
issues at hand while gathering different perspectives as they approach a
solution to these matters.
The committee, although outside the mandate of the United Nations, will be
following the UNA-USA Rules of Procedure. So delegates are requested to
familiarize themselves with the same. However, this is entirely tentative and
any changes introduced in the Rules of Procedure by the Executive Board shall
be made known to the delegates on the first day of the conference.
http://www.unausa.org/
It is advised that delegates always possess necessary substantial material to
support their claims and produce them whenever requested to do so. Only the
following shall be considered as binding proofs on any statement/claim made in
the committee that requires verification (in that order).
1. Official ECA release documents
2. Official UEFA release documents
3. Official FIFA release documents
4. Reuter Reports
5. Official release documents of FIFPro, CAS, IFAB & EPFL
6. Official club releases by members of the ECA
7. Official release documents from the other 5 continental confederations
8. Official release documents of the national football associations that are
members of FIFA
The verdict on the verification of statements/claims made based on any
other document shall be at the discretion of the Executive Board.
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