THE European Court ruling outlawing the payment of fees in transfers between EU countries for players at the end of their contracts does not apply to transfers within a country, it was reaffirmed yesterday.
European Social Affairs Commissioner Padraig Flynn confirmed the interpretation of the ruling in a meeting with a delegation from the English Premiership.
"It is possible to continue domestic transfers in an individual member state, that is not contrary to the court judgment," Flynn said after meeting the delegation, led by the league's chief executive Rick Parry.
"If a player (from the United Kingdom) wants to move to another club in the UK internally, article 48 (which prohibits the restriction on freedom of movement of workers across the EU) does not apply," Flynn said. "(This) only applies to the freedom of movement of players trans frontier," he said.
The European Court ruled last month, after a five year legal battle by Belgian player Jean Marc Bosman, that UEFA transfer fee rules and restrictions on the number of non national players a team can field infringed European Union law.
However, legal experts believe that the logic of the Bosman ruling means that demanding fees for out of contract players would inevitably be found to contravene European competition law if a case was brought before the European
Court.
Flynn and Parry also discussed the Court's ruling ordering UEFA last month to scrap its rule allowing teams to field only three non nationals which UEFA believes applies to European club competitions.
"It's quite clear, it's explicit and it's non negotiable," Flynn said yesterday.
The English Premiership has already said clubs can field more than three nationals from other EU member states. Some major European clubs, eager to be able to use top foreign talent, have pressed for the rules to be changed immediately in line with the Court ruling.
Parry said he and Flynn had discussed ways of putting pressure on UEFA to comply with the court ruling but added the Premiership's views would be made known to UEFA via the English national association.
Flynn said UEFA would hold meetings between now and the end of February to clarify its position on the Bosman ruling, but left UEFA no room to manoeuvre. "But we're quite clear that the judgment is absolutely crystal clear and UEFA must now consider how it is going to change its rules," he said.
"In our view the judgment is very clear and leaves very little room for doubt," Parry said.
Meanwhile, a London based law firm, Reid Minty, who already represent Wimbledon captain Vinnie Jones, are planning a new organisation called The Players Out of Contract Association (POCA), designed to extract maximum benefit for the members they aim to recruit.
