Comments on: Foreign Quotas, Could They Happen Legally in the Premier League?

By: Daily Dose 11.25.07 - World Football - The Offside - Soccer News and Opinion from leagues around the world

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 23:01:00 +0000

[...] Foreign quotas illegal in the EU? (Pitch Invasion) [...]

By: Antonio G

Antonio G — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 23:31:06 +0000

One of the interesting oddities of the EU legislation is that it prevents discrimination between countries but not within them. Arsene Wenger, for instance, had strongly argued that his import policy is to some considerable degree a result of the fact that either UK law or FA regs (I forget which) prevent him from taking on any English schoolboys who don’t live within a 120-minute radius of the Emirates. Which means he can take Fabregas, but would have been prevented from approaching Rooney.

By: Thomas Dunmore

Thomas Dunmore — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 20:40:31 +0000

The inner workings of the EU have always been a mystery to me. That’s probably why I only got a 2:2 on my essay on the Single European Act my second year at university.

By: ursus arctos

ursus arctos — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 20:16:25 +0000

The nature of the “legislative” process at EU level is such that major debates are often completely invisible to those who are not directly involved.

The Treaty doesn’t shut the door formally (EU treaties hardly ever do), but it does mean that the Treaty (assuming it is ratified, which is far from a foregone conclusion) won’t be the means for any formal recognition of a sporting exception.

By: Thomas Dunmore

Thomas Dunmore — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 19:01:31 +0000

I would think, though, that if (a) happened, we would at least be in the throes of a major debate, which Glanville rules out. But The Times' report last week on the European Commission's analysis seems to concur with you that the reform treaty does not provide the opportunity for (a) to happen.

Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, is among those who have argued that because sport’s “specific nature” is recognised by the treaty, this would allow football to opt out from general EU employment laws. But officials in Brussels yesterday said that the EU Reform Treaty will not override a series of judgments from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that have established that professional foot-ballers are workers subject to EU law. The EU Reform Treaty, due to come into force in 2009, simply commits the EU to “contribute to the promotion of European sporting issues, while taking account of the specific nature of sport, its structures based on voluntary activity and its social and educational function”. An EU official said: “The reference to specificity in the new treaty cannot be construed as meaning that these provisions would allow for sport to have a special status allowing it to be exempted from the fundamental freedoms of the EU.”

So it seems Glanville is probably right, which makes one realise Taylor was just grandstanding for the crowd. The interview is still quite interesting anyway, though.

By: ursus arctos

ursus arctos — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 18:47:55 +0000

I’m with Glanville.

The fight for recognising a “sporting exception” to EU freedom of movement rules has been going on for two decades, and Franchi lost that battle at a time when the commercial interests in favour of maintaining freedom of movement among club teams were nowhere near as strong as they are now.

The EU has recognised “cultural exceptions”, but the sporting case (especially when applied to the likes of the G-14) is much weaker, and whereas I can see a possibility of their being some grandstanding, the chances that a quota system would a) pass and b) survive the inevitable legal challenge are exceedingly small.