Business of Sport: While FIFA and WADA will formally adopt their accord on the WADA code on doping at the FIFA Congress in May, the international players' union FIFPro has publicly criticised the process between the two bodies and raised its own objections to the code that is to be adopted by sports bodies across the planet.Daire Whelan
The FIFPro is astounded at the WADA and the FIFA drawing up a joint statement while the matter it contains ought still be subject to negotiation. The FIFPro believes this untoward sequence of events may well be motivated by the upcoming Olympic Games in Athens.
"The WADA earlier issued an ominous statement warning sports associations that they could be excluded from the Games if they refused to accept the WADA code."
FIFPro lists its objections:
l harmonisation of the code cannot be achieved as national organisations' rules vary and the legal safety of athletes cannot be guaranteed
l multiple out-of-competition testing by different organisations can occur
l a blanket two-year ban does not take into account differing circumstances
l trade in doping and possession are treated alike. There is no difference in sanctions for a player doping regularly and one unknowingly taking a minimal dose
l the duty to constantly report personal whereabouts is a severe invasion of privacy. Also publication of the findings of the anti-doping authorities often reveals athletes' names
l There should be professional rehabilitation for athletes affected by drug abuse
Critically, FIFA, despite recognising FIFPro as the voice of the players, has not involved the organisation in negotiations, and if WADA chief Dick Pound hopes to implement the code in football there are some tough obstacles still to be overcome. Meanwhile, other sports will be carefully analysing FIFPro's objections and wondering if their own athletes will be affected.
"We have a lawyer working for us and representing us in our cases against clubs and this same lawyer is also responsible for hiring at the law firm he works for. Recognising new talent and valuing educational programmes are important factors in his job in recruiting the best lawyers to the firm; educational costs are higher than in sport and there is also high wages to attract the best.
"And our lawyer points out that he would love to be able to introduce a transfer system into the law system. Wouldn't it be great if they could look for money for someone who works with them and wants to move on? After all, they've put all this money into training these people and they expect to change jobs at their will? Each industry could argue that they too are special and deserve their own transfer system - why not have one for lawyers and maybe carpenters as well? Now tell me why sport should be special."
It's a convincing argument put forward by Mads Oland of the Danish PFA and one that is going to be tested to its limits over the coming years as Denmark, Norway and Ireland take their own cases seeking to show up the impossibility of having a system that limits free movement for workers and contradicts European and national labour laws.
To those who argue sport is different and cannot be subject solely to the laws of the land, the above story is used as an example.
This theme was just one of the many discussed by soccer players' union representatives from Germany, Belgium, Denmark and Finland who were in Dublin during the week for an ideas meeting with Ireland's player representatives, the PFAI.
All members of FIFPro, the international players' union, these five countries (plus Norway) are looking to come together on similar issues and problems affecting players in their leagues.
But more importantly, the causes they are taking just might have lasting resonance for the rest of football.
The big boys in terms of European football are England, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Italy. They sit at FIFPro's top table, take the larger share of commercial revenues, represent the world's most famous and richest players, and by and large control and direct negotiations between themselves and FIFA.
However, a smaller - and potentially more powerful - bloc of countries is emerging within Europe that is putting football's transfer and compensation system to the test.
So what unites Ireland with Germany, Belgium with Norway? The economic status of their top-flight football is what gives them a common goal (although Germany is an exception as its player union has only recently reformed and is essentially influential only in the Bundesliga second division).
All of the player representatives who met in Dublin - Mads Oland from Denmark, Marcus Juhola of Finland, Belgium's Dirk de Vos, Frank Riback of Germany and Fran Gavin of Ireland - want to see an end to the current player-compensation system and, most importantly, want to see footballers recognised as employees, and not "special cases" or different from other workers.
The Dublin meeting was the first but not the last and this bloc of campaigning countries will be making sure their voices are heard loudly across Europe.
"In Europe there are now only small countries - those that know it and those that don't know it yet." So said a former Belgian Prime Minister, Theo LeFevre, and while Europe may be expanding it is still the smaller countries who are carrying the most punch.
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"There's only one way to succeed in anything, and that is to give it everything. I do, and I demand that my players do." Email: bizofsport@eircom.net
Despite George Bush's very public commitment, in his State of the Union address back in January, to curbing drugs in sport , a former director of public affairs for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Robert Weiner, has publicly criticised the administration's efforts for their failures and inadequacies.
Weiner, who worked in the Clinton administration from 1995 to 2001, says that since the departure of Barry McCaffrey, the USA's director of national drug-control policy, there is a vacuum that has not been filled by Bush's appointment to the position, John P Walters.
Weiner says Walters "has only sent lower officials to major sports drug conferences - even the 100-nation World Code conference last year - and has not called a single news conference with sports initiatives, despite the fact that over 500,000 American youths abused steroids last year".
Weiner also says the White House "even refused to host a summit on drugs and sports when USA Track and Field begged it to do so after the THG discovery - asserting that the White House Drug Office does not respond to 'press' statements."
And in a further criticism of the Bush administration's "gestures" in their fight on drug abuse in sport he says, "President Bush's rhetoric in the State of the Union about the dangers of steroids and the need for professional sports to take action is nice voluntarism but won't mean a lot without actionable (sic) follow-up by his team in office - and the action needs to be more than banning substances two years after they are already replaced by other equally bad ones on the market."
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Phil Mickelson's winner's cheque from the US Masters at Augusta last weekend
