Lawsuit: FFP illegal according to EU law

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Le-fair-play-financier-illegal/368835

Lol. A case has been served to the European Commission. The argument is that investment for the purpose of development/growth is protected by European law and that UEFA's FFP is breaking the law by blocking investment meant for development/growth.

Actually, a very good argument.

brb David Bernstein sending this story to David Cameron

Whos filing the lawsuit btw?

Jean-Louis Dupont... he's the one that got the Bosman act passed. That's the act that stopped quotas on players that are part of the EU community in 1995. Big time guy.

OKay I translated the article.. He has a fair point, don't you think?

srigooner wrote:OKay I translated the article.. He has a fair point, don't you think?

Yeah he does. very good point. He's not the type to champion a cause that he doesn't feel he has a 90% chance to win either...

The way US leagues got around this is that they created private leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL and MLS are completely private) where the clubs become members and agree to abide by membership rules and regulations. If the leagues are public entities, like all the football leagues in Europe are, you cannot get away with creating these types of limitations legally.

Not only is it against EU law, it's likely contrary to WTO regulations too lol.

Well isn't this just a punch in the nuts for UEFA and co lol

The actual argument is sound as well so it'll be interesting to see how this goes down.

If I am understanding this right, I have a hard time seeing how this lawsuit will be successful

UEFA can't *force* any club to do anything (as Sports mentioned with his US comparison), but they are well within their rights to refuse entry into their competitions based on rules that apply to everyone

no because all the leagues are public entities. It would be true if they were a completely private entity where members agreed to adhere to set of rules. Every league would need to privatize fully to become essentially a private club.

It would also require that every employee (including players) agree to adhere to these club rules as part of their contract.

What you have here is that an attorney representing player rights is arguing that a) this is not a private entity, b) as a public entity, it cannot have stricter competition rules as other similar entities in Europe and c) the employees are being hurt and did not accept adherence to these new set of rules.

It's well thought out.

suppose a club buys a bunch 15 year old wonder kids but in so doing spent more than they were generating in revenue, would they still be penalised by financial fair play rules and have to a pay a fine ? Sure if the judgement is decided in Duponts favour, then the club would be able to argue that they were making investments in development and growth

or is the question im posing completely pointless as such circumstances are highly unlikely to arise anyway as 15 year olds arent professionals and dont command transfer fees, and the wages they earn once they get pro contracts age 16 will be taken into account of by the financial fair play rules anyway

sportsczy wrote:no because all the leagues are public entities. It would be true if they were a completely private entity where members agreed to adhere to set of rules. Every league would need to privatize fully to become essentially a private club.

It would also require that every employee (including players) agree to adhere to these club rules as part of their contract.

What you have here is that an attorney representing player rights is arguing that a) this is not a private entity, b) as a public entity, it cannot have stricter competition rules as other similar entities in Europe and c) the employees are being hurt and did not accept adherence to these new set of rules.

It's well thought out.

your distinction between public and private has me perplexed

The FA is not a government agency, it has never been accountable to the public - its a private company accountable to its shareholders

Ok in the case of the FA... but it's definitely not true in France. There's a minister of sport and the FFF and LFP are government agencies. Not sure in other countries.

UEFA cannot implement a rule where a portion of its members are non-compliant. If any part of it is illegal, the whole thing becomes illegal.

sportsczy wrote:Ok in the case of the FA... but it's definitely not true in France. There's a minister of sport and the FFF and LFP are government agencies. Not sure in other countries.

UEFA cannot implement a rule where a portion of its members are non-compliant. If any part of it is illegal, the whole thing becomes illegal.

That certainly makes things interesting, had no idea the French League state-run. How many of the other UEFA heavyweights associations' are state-run?

Would love to talk more on this but have to go to class atm, will write more later

There's no true equivalent in the US in terms of categorization. It's a non-profit agency that operates for the public good. The LFP's intent is to represent the good of football in France and spend all its resources on the development of the game. But it falls under government oversight. It's definitely not a for-profit autonomous private entity.

Not sure how other countries are organized.