EU asked for clarity on football profs

Friday 26 October 2007

Sport minister Jet Bussemaker and her French colleague have asked the European Commission to take a clear stance on the legal position of professional footballers, reports NRC Next.

The minister wants to avoid the European Court of Justice becoming involved in the row over who is responsible when players get injured playing for national teams.

The world football association FIFA is allowed to compel clubs to loan expensive professional players to national teams. But the clubs are against the FIFA ruling because players may become injured and put out of action for club matches.

Bussemaker is concerned that if the court agrees that FIFA is abusing its powers, it could be end of players representing their own country in international competitions.

Two of the Netherlands’ leading football clubs, Amsterdam’s Ajax and PSV Eindhoven, are members of the so-called G-14, an organisation that represents Europe’s top clubs and which is supporting legal action against FIFA.

The Dutch clubs declined to comment on Bussemaker’s initiative, the paper said.

‘I hope that Dutch players will continue to play for the national team in the future. Because a Dutch sport club is not an international organisation, but part of Dutch society,’ the minister told the NRC.

© DutchNews.nl

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