The end of the transfer battle between the European Union and soccer's governing bodies is almost in sight, FIFA General Secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen said yesterday.
He also revealed that FIFA were anxious to get the new regulations into place because of two outstanding court cases against FIFA which could scupper all current negotiations on the new regulations.
"There are two cases against us which would be devastating for FIFA if we lost, much worse than the 1995 Bosman ruling which allowed freedom of movement at the end of a contract," he said.
"However, I am hopeful they will not come to court before we have reached agreement with the EU."
One case involves the Hungarian player Tibor Balog whose career is in limbo because a transfer deal between Charleroi in Belgium and Nancy in France broke down. The other involves a Belgian syndicate taking FIFA to court over a wider freedom of movement issue.
With those cases looming, the joint FIFA-UEFA task force dealing specifically with the new regulations was being expanded to include representatives from clubs and leagues including two members of the powerful G-14 group - composed of Europe's richest clubs.
They will meet next week to thrash out the final proposals to be presented to the EU on February 16th.
FIFA, will present five key points to the EC: no transfer fees for players aged over 23 who move at the end of their contracts; a general prohibition on transfers of players aged under 18, with certain exceptions; compensation for all clubs involved in the development of a player transferred before reaching the age of 23; the introduction of a new independent arbitration system and the introduction of two transfer windows a year with an individual player only being allowed one transfer a year.
Meanwhile, football agents may be forced to pledge not to tout players around while they are under contract to a club under radical new proposals being worked on by the English Football Association (FA) and the Premiership.
Celtic defender Alan Stubbs has been given the all-clear after twice battling against cancer.
A consultation at the Beatson Oncology Unit - where the player has been receiving treatment - has revealed that he will not require further surgery or chemotherapy.
A random drugs test last year showed he had the disease and the 29-year-old had to have a testicle removed before suffering a relapse in November. 99151912 Bruce Grobbelaar is safe from any worldwide ban from FIFA until he has exhausted the court process in Britain.
Bradford's Stan Collymore was expected to join Real Oviedo last night after arriving in Madrid to finalise his move to the Spanish club.
Only a fortnight before tickets go on sale for the 2002 World Cup finals the co-hosts Japan and South Korea are entrenched in an embarrassing row over which country's name should appear first on official documents, merchandising and promotional materials.
The row dates back to 1996, when FIFA forced the two countries to share the tournament a bitter bidding competition.
Under a compromise after that decision FIFA awarded the final to Japan (Yokohama, June 30th). As a consolation South Korea was given the opening game (Seoul, May 31st) and the honour of having its name put first on the official English title: the 2002 Fifa World Cup Korea/Japan.
Japan insists a gentlemen's agreement was reached that would allow it to switch the order of the two countries' names when written in kanji characters (Japanese script) for the domestic market.
But after complaints from South Korea this month, FIFA has prohibited Japan from putting its name first in any form on tournament tickets. Japan has retaliated by dropping the names of both countries on the 675,000 tickets going on sale from February 15th.
