European Parliament resolution of 29 March 2007 on the future of professional football in Europe (2006/2130(INI))
Date: 2007-03-14
Institutions: Committee on Culture and Education, European Parliament
Subjects: competition law, education, fight against crime, performance drugs, professional sport, social role, sporting event, sports body

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P6_TA(2007)0100

Future of professional football in Europe

European Parliament resolution of 29 March 2007 on the future of professional football in Europe
(2006/2130(INI))

The European Parliament,

— having regard to the Helsinki Report of 10 December 1999 (1) and to the Nice Declaration of 8 Decem-

ber 2000 (2) on the specific characteristics of sport and its social function in Europe,

— having regard to Articles 17 and III-282 of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (the Con-

stitutional Treaty),

— having regard to the UK Presidency initiative on European football, which resulted in the ‘Independent

European Sport Review 2006’,

— having regard to the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Communities (the Court of

Justice), the Court of First Instance and the Commission's decisions in sports-related matters,

— having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

— having regard to the report of the Committee on Culture and Education and the opinions of the
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and the Committee on Legal Affairs
(A6-0036/2007),

A. whereas the Commission has underlined in the Helsinki Report the need for a partnership between
football's governing bodies and public authorities for the good governance of the game, which fully
respects the self-regulatory nature of professional sport,

B. whereas European sport, and football in particular, is an inalienable part of European identity, European
culture and citizenship, and the European Football Model, characterised by open sports competitions
within a pyramid structure in which several hundred thousand amateur clubs and millions of volunteers
and players form the base for the top professional clubs,
is the result of longstanding democratic
tradition and grass-roots support in the community as a whole;

C. whereas football plays an important social and educational role, and is an effective instrument for social
inclusion and multicultural dialogue, and needs to play an active part in counteracting discrimination,
intolerance, racism and violence, as many of such incidents are still taking place in and around sta-
diums, and whereas professional football clubs and leagues also play a vital social and cultural role in
their local and national communities;

D. whereas professional football has both an economic and a non-economic dimension,

E. whereas the economic aspects of professional football are subject to Community law, and the case-law
recognises the specificity of sport and the social and educational role played by football in Europe,

F. whereas it is thus the responsibility of the national and European political and sports authorities to
ensure that, when Community law is applied to professional football, it does not compromise its social
and cultural purposes, by developing an appropriate legal framework, which fully respects the funda-
mental principles of specificity of professional football, autonomy of its bodies and subsidiarity,

(1) COM(1999)0644.
(2) Presidency Conclusions, Nice European Council Meeting 7-9 December 2000, Annex IV.

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G. whereas it was decided, in view of the growing importance of sport in the European Union's various
policies (freedom of movement, recognition of qualifications, competition, health and audiovisual poli-
cies), to include sport in the Constitutional Treaty as an area of EU competence (under Articles 17 and
III-282); and whereas the Constitutional Treaty has not been ratified by all of the Member States, and
the Nice Declaration on sport in the EU alone is not sufficient to deal with the current problems, which
go beyond national dimensions and accordingly call for European solutions,

H. whereas the greater professionalisation and commercialisation of sport in general and football in par-
ticular has made EC law much more relevant in this area, a fact reflected in the growing number of
cases pending before the Court of Justice and the Commission,

— this has greatly exacerbated the problem of legal uncertainty and the sectors concerned increasingly
see an approach based solely on treating cases individually as inadequate, a view also documented
in the study commissioned by a number of sports ministers in the EU Member States and recently
published under the title ‘Independent European Sport Review 2006’,

— it is not clear, for example, whether the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) rule
stipulating that teams must contain a minimum number of home-grown players, a provision
which is extremely important for youth development, would, if it were reviewed by the Court of
Justice, prove to be consistent with Article 12 of the EC Treaty,

I. whereas as a result of this legal uncertainty, it is not clear either how much autonomy self-regulating
bodies, such as UEFA, national associations and national leagues, enjoy and to what extent they are
bound, when exercising their right to self-regulation and performing their regulatory function, by cer-
tain principles of Community law such as free movement, non-discrimination and competition rules,

J. whereas this legal uncertainty is not only problematic in economic terms, but in particular in terms of
the social, cultural and educational functions of football, and at the same time reduces the interest of
fans and efforts to improve support, and undermines the principle of fair play,

K. whereas a decision has been taken to include sport in the Constitutional Treaty as a matter of EU
competence (Articles 17 and III-282) in order to give the EU powers to develop its European dimen-
sion,

L. whereas professional football does not function like a typical sector of the economy and whereas
professional football clubs cannot operate under the same market conditions as other economic sectors,
because of the interdependence between sports opponents and the competitive balance needed to pre-
serve the uncertainty of results, and whereas its various actors, including supporters, players, clubs,
leagues and associations, do not operate as normal consumers or enterprises,

M. whereas the future of professional football in Europe is threatened by the growing concentration of

economic wealth and sports power,

N. whereas the growing importance of revenues from the sale of broadcasting rights may undermine the
competitive balance between clubs from different countries, as such revenues are largely determined by
the size of national broadcasting markets,

O. whereas for many decades professional football has increasingly been characterised by an international
dimension and has equally been affected by different international regulatory and legislative regimes,

P. whereas diverging national legislation and licensing criteria in Europe cause an uneven playing field,
economically and legally, and this situation seriously hampers fair sports competition between teams in
European leagues, and hence also between national teams,

Q. whereas the participation of women in sport in general is still far below the level of men, whereas
women are still under-represented in the sports decision-making bodies and whereas there are still
cases of gender-discrimination in the remuneration of sports professionals,

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R. whereas, despite the fact that the Bosman ruling in 1995 had a positive effect on players' contracts and
players' mobility — though a lot of employment-related and social problems remain to be solved — it
also had several negative consequences for the sport, including an increased ability on the part of the
richest clubs to sign up the best players, a stronger link between financial power and sporting success,
an inflationary spiral in players' salaries, reduced opportunities for locally-trained players to express
their talent at the highest level and reduced solidarity between professional and amateur sport,

S. whereas many criminal activities (match fixing, corruption, etc.) are the result of the spiral of spending,

salary inflation and the subsequent financial crises faced by many clubs,

T. whereas the Commission has confirmed in formal decisions the compatibility of the collective selling of

media rights with EC competition law,

General context

Stresses its attachment to the European Football Model, with its symbiotic relationship between ama-

1.
teur and professional football;

2.
Points out the importance of the inter-linked national pyramid structures of European football, which
nurture grassroots talent and competition because national leagues and competitions are also the route to
European competitions, and a proper balance needs to be struck between the national foundation of the
game and the European level to enable football leagues and associations to cooperate efficiently;

3.
Recognises the need for a joint effort by football governing bodies and political authorities at several
levels to counter certain negative developments, such as excessive commercialisation and unfair competition,
in order to ensure a positive future for professional football with exciting competitions, a high degree of
identification of supporters with their clubs and wide public access to competitions by means of, among
others, special ticket prices for young people and families, especially for major international matches;

4. Welcomes the work of the above-mentioned Independent European Sport Review 2006 and of the
study commissioned by the European Parliament on ‘Professional Sport in the Internal Market’, and calls on
the Member States, European and national football governing bodies and the Commission in its forthcom-
ing White Paper on Sport to continue the efforts initiated by the UK Presidency to assess the need for policy
measures with due respect for the principle of subsidiarity by considering the principles and main recom-
mendations of that Review;

Expresses its desire to avoid the future of professional football in Europe being solely determined on a

5.
case-by-case basis and to enhance legal certainty;

6.
Agrees with the basic principle that the economic aspects of professional sport do fall within the
scope of the EC Treaty, taking into account the specificity of sport as set out in the Nice Declaration; and
considers that in this respect the consequential restrictive effects of a sporting rule are compatible with EU
law, provided that the rule pursues a legitimate objective related to the nature and purpose of sport and that
its restrictive effects are inherent in the pursuit of that objective and proportionate to it;

7.
Calls on the Commission to develop guidance on how to apply this principle, and to start a consulta-
tion process with the European and national football authorities with the aim of setting up a formal frame-
work agreement between the EU and the European and national football governing bodies;

Asks the Commission,

8.
in partnership with Parliament, the Member States and the European and
national football governing bodies and other stakeholders, to include the principles and recommendations
contained in this resolution in its forthcoming White Paper, and to establish an action plan for European
sport in general and football in particular which sets out the issues for the Commission to deal with and the
instruments to be used in order to enhance legal certainty and a level playing-field;

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9.
Asks the Commission to continue a structured dialogue with the football governing bodies, including
national associations and leagues, and other stakeholders in order to overcome the problem of legal uncer-
tainty;

10. Welcomes the success of and great interest in women's football in Europe and draws attention to its
growing social significance;

Governance

Calls on all football governing bodies to better define and coordinate their competences, responsibil-
11.
ities, functions and decision-making procedures in order to increase their democracy, transparency and
legitimacy, for the benefit of the entire football sector; invites the Commission to provide guidance on
which legitimate and adequate self-regulation is supported, with due regard to national
legislation and
financial support for federations and associations which aims at developing and cultivating young footbal-
lers and the national team;

Calls on UEFA to involve representation organisations representing players, clubs and leagues in the

12.
decision-making process;

Believes that improved governance leading to more concerted self-regulation at national and Euro-

13.
pean level will reduce the tendency to have recourse to the Commission and the Court of Justice;

14.
Recognises the expertise and legitimacy of sporting tribunals insofar as they address citizens' right to
a fair hearing, as laid down in Article 47(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union;

Takes the view that applying to the civil courts, even when not justified in sports terms, cannot be
15.
penalised by disciplinary regulations; and condemns the arbitrary decisions by the Federation of Interna-
tional Football Association (FIFA) in this respect;

Asks UEFA and FIFA to accept in their statutes the right of recourse to ordinary courts, but recog-
16.
nises however that the principle of self-regulation implies and justifies the structures of the European sports
model and the fundamental principles governing the organisation of sporting competitions, including anti-
doping regulations and disciplinary sanctions;

17.
Insists that the principle of proportionality is essential to all football governing bodies when exercis-
ing their self-regulatory power; and asks the Commission to ensure that this principle is applied in legal
cases concerning sport;

18.

Calls on FIFA to increase its internal democracy and the transparency of its structures;

Believes that the Charleroi case currently before the Court of Justice could seriously undermine the
19.
ability of small and medium-sized national football associations to take part in international competitions
and threaten the vital
in this respect,
believes that clubs should release their players for national team duty without entitlement to compensation;
encourages UEFA and FIFA, together with the European clubs and leagues, to reach an agreement on the
conditions applicable to players who are injured while representing their countries and on a system of
collective insurance being put into place;

investment in grassroots football made by national associations;

20.
Supports the UEFA club licensing system, which aims at ensuring a level playing-field between clubs
and contributing to their financial stability, and calls on UEFA to further develop this licensing system in
compliance with Community law in order to guarantee financial transparency and proper management;

Recommends a vigorous campaign by the national and European political and sports authorities to

21.
establish greater transparency and good governance in European professional football;

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Supports efforts to protect the integrity of the game by ruling out conflicts of interests of major

22.
stakeholders in clubs or governing bodies;

Calls on the Commission to reflect, in consultation with football governing bodies, leagues and clubs,
23.
on the introduction of a European legal status for sports companies to take account of the economic
activities of major football clubs whilst preserving their specific sports-related characteristics; such a status
would make it possible to establish rules for monitoring the economic and financial activities of such
companies and for the involvement of supporters and community participation;

24.
Asks Member States and football governing bodies to actively promote the social and democratic role
of football fans who support the principles of fair play, by supporting the creation and development of
Supporters' Trusts (in recognition of their responsibility) which could then be involved in the ownership and
management of clubs, through the appointment of a football ombudsman and specifically through extend-
ing the model of Supporters Direct at European level;

25.
Asks UEFA to examine how supporters' organisations could be involved as important stakeholders
when they are organised at European level and to examine the feasibility of a European Supporters Direct
body;

Considers that professional footballers, their trade-union representatives and the clubs and leagues

26.
should be more closely involved in the governance of football through a better social dialogue;

Fight against criminal activities

27.
Supports the efforts of the European and national football governing bodies to introduce greater
transparency in the ownership structures of clubs and asks the Council to develop and adopt measures for
the fight against the criminal activities that haunt professional football, including money laundering, illegal
betting, doping and match fixing, and enforced prostitution on the sidelines of major football events;

Emphasises the need to ensure full compliance with transparency and money-laundering legislation

28.
by entities involved in the football sector;

29.
Calls on Member States to introduce mechanisms fostering cooperation between clubs, the police and
supporters' organisations, with a view to combating violence and hooliganism and other forms of delin-
quent behaviour before, during and after football matches and to exchange best practices;

30.
Asks the Council to strengthen the coordination of preventive measures and sanctions concerning
hooligans, also in relation to national games; calls in this respect on the Council to implement its Decision
2002/348/JHA concerning security in connection with football matches with an international dimension
and if necessary to approve additional measures following recent violent incidents in and outside football
stadiums;

Calls on Member States, Europe's footballing authorities and associations and leagues to conduct a
31.
major European-wide campaign to raise awareness among supporters, with a view to curbing violence inside
and outside football grounds;

Social, cultural and educational role of football

32.
Highlights the importance of education through sport and the potential of football to help get
socially vulnerable youngsters back on track and asks Member States, national associations, leagues and
clubs to exchange best practices in this regard;

Calls on the Commission and Member States also to support social inclusion projects by football

33.
clubs;

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34.
Expresses its clear support for the UEFA measures to encourage the education of young players by
requiring a minimum number of home-grown players in a professional club's squad and by placing a limit
on the size of the squads; believes that such incentive measures are proportionate and calls on professional
clubs to strictly implement this rule;

35.
Is convinced that additional arrangements are necessary to ensure that the home-grown players
initiative does not lead to child trafficking, with some clubs giving contracts to very young children (below
16 years of age);

Points out that young players must be given the opportunity for a general education and vocational
in parallel with their club and training activities and that the clubs should ensure that young

36.
training,
players from third countries return safely home if their career does not take off in Europe;

37.
Insists that immigration law must always be respected in relation to the recruitment of young foreign
talent and calls on the Commission to tackle the problem of child trafficking in the context of Council
Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA of 19 July 2002 on combating trafficking in human beings (1) and/or
in the context of the implementation of Council Directive 94/33/EC of 22 June 1994 on the protection of
young people at work (2); points out that young players must be given the opportunity for a general educa-
tion and vocational training in parallel with their club and training activity, so that they do not depend
entirely on the clubs; calls for action to prevent the social exclusion of young people who are ultimately not
selected;

Calls on the football governing bodies and the clubs to engage in the fight against human trafficking

38.
by

— subscribing to a European charter for solidarity in football, that commits subscribers to respect good
practices concerning the discovery, recruitment and reception of young foreign football players;

— the creation of a Solidarity Fund that would finance prevention programmes in countries most affected

by human trafficking;

— reviewing Article 19 of the FIFA Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players in relation to the

protection of minors;

39.
Underlines the important social and educational role of training centres and the vital role which they
play in both the well-being of clubs and the future development of football talent, supports financial incen-
tives for clubs with a training centre, provided such incentives are compatible with the Treaty rules on State
aid, and asks the Commission to recognise this crucial role when developing guidelines on State aid;

Stresses the need for an environment to be created in which young players can develop and be

40.
brought up in a spirit of honesty and fair play;

41.
Urges the Member States to introduce a gender perspective in all aspects of sports policies, with the
aim of further reducing the continuing difference between men and women both in representation on
sports bodies and in remuneration, as well as in actual participation in sport, thus equalising the personal
and social benefits flowing from sport;

Employment and social issues

Regrets the differences in social and fiscal legislation between Member States, which cause imbalances

42.
between clubs, and the lack of willingness of Member States to solve this at European level;

Emphasises the importance of the mutual recognition of professional qualifications gained in another

43.
Member State in allowing the free movement of workers;

(1) OJ L 203, 1.8.2002, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 216, 20.8.1994, p. 12.

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44.
Believes that the current economic reality surrounding players' agents requires that football governing
bodies at all levels, in consultation with the Commission, improve the rules governing players' agents; in this
respect calls on the Commission to support UEFA's efforts to regulate players' agents, if necessary by pre-
senting a proposal for a directive concerning players' agents which would include: strict standards and
examination criteria before anyone could operate as a football players' agent; transparency in agents' trans-
actions; minimum harmonised standards for agents' contracts; an efficient monitoring and disciplinary sys-
tem by the European governing bodies; the introduction of an ‘agents' licensing system’ and agents' register;
and ending ‘dual representation’ and payment of agents by the player;

45.
Calls on UEFA and the Commission to intensify their efforts to strengthen the social dialogue at
European level on issues such as the duration of contracts, the definition of the transfer window, possibi-
lities for terminating a contract early and compensation for trainer clubs, as it can prevent and overcome
tensions between players and employers;

46. Welcomes the move by FIFPro, UEFA and the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) to
further players' rights by ensuring that players always are given written contracts with certain minimum
requirements;

47.
Acknowledges the need to implement employment legislation more effectively in all Member States
to ensure that professional players are granted the rights they are entitled to and fulfil the obligations they
comply with as employees;

48.
Asks the Commission actively to support initiatives and campaigns to fight child labour in football-
related industries and examine all political and legal possibilities to ensure that the rights of all workers,
including children, are respected;

Fight against violence, racism, other forms of discrimination

49.
Asks the Commission, the Member States and all those involved in professional football to accept,
since the legal entitlement to a workplace free of racism and other forms of discrimination also applies to
footballers, their responsibility for continuing and intensifying the fight against racism and xenophobia by
condemning all forms of discrimination inside and outside the stadium; asks for stricter sanctions against
any kind of discriminatory acts in football; asks UEFA and the national associations and leagues to apply
disciplinary rules in a coherent, firm and coordinated manner, without neglecting the financial situation of
clubs;

50.
Also calls in this connection on the Commission, UEFA and other interested parties to take action on
Parliament's Declaration of 14 March 2006 on tackling racism in football (1); compliments UEFA and FIFA
on the tougher sanctions being incorporated in their statutes and for the measures being taken, and looks
forward to further action by all the parties concerned in the football sector;

51.
Calls on the Commission, UEFA and other interested parties not to allow other forms of discrimina-
tion, such as discrimination on grounds of sex, origin, sexual orientation or otherwise, to go unpunished
inside and outside the football stadium;

52.
Condemns all forms of violent behaviour in football stadiums, encourages Member States to apply
the strictest measures at their disposal in order to reduce and eliminate all forms of violence on the sports
field and expresses its support for the UEFA measures seeking to eradicate it;

Competition law and the internal market

53.
Strongly believes that the introduction of a modulated cost-control system could be a way of enhan-
cing financial stability and the competitive balance between teams, for instance when integrated into an
updated club licensing system;

(1) OJ C 291 E, 30.11.2006, p. 143.

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54.
Considers that football must ensure the interdependence of competitors and the need to guarantee
the uncertainty of results of competitions, which could serve as a justification for sports organisations to
implement a specific framework on the market for the production and the sale of sport events; however,
considers that such specific features do not warrant an automatic exemption from the Community competi-
tion rules for any economic activities generated by professional football, owing to the increasing economic
weight of such activities;

Asks the Commission to draw up clear guidelines on the application of the State aid rules, indicating
55.
what kind of public support is acceptable and legitimate in order to fulfil the social, cultural and educational
role played by football, such as financial or other support granted by public authorities for the provision or
updating of football stadiums or facilities;

56.
Asks the Commission and the Member States to work closely with the international, European and
national football governing bodies to reflect on the consequences of a possible liberalisation of the betting
market and on mechanisms to secure the financing of sport in general and football in particular, and to
look into measures which would protect the integrity of national and European football competitions;

Recognises the importance of trade marks in the sports industry except where they are used to

57.
impede the free movement of goods;

58.
Notes that there is often a mismatch between the supply of, and demand for, tickets for major foot-
ball events, which is beneficial to sponsors but detrimental to consumers; stresses that the interests of
consumers should be fully taken into account when it comes to the distribution of tickets and that non-
discriminatory and fair ticket sales should be guaranteed at all levels; acknowledges however that the dis-
tribution of tickets may, where appropriate, be restricted to members of supporters clubs, travel clubs or
similar schemes, membership of which is available on a non-discriminatory basis;

Selling of television rights and competition law

59. Maintains that collective selling in all competitions is fundamental to protecting the financial solidar-
ity model of European football; welcomes a public debate on and further investigation by the Commission
into whether this model should be adopted across Europe for both pan-European and domestic competi-
tions, as suggested by the Independent Sport Review 2006; in this respect, calls on the Commission to
provide a detailed evaluation of the economic and sports impact of its relevant media rights decisions and
the extent to which they have or have not worked;

60.
Stresses that the sale of media rights vested in the European national football leagues should always
comply with EC competition law, taking into account the specificity of sport, and be negotiated and com-
pleted in a transparent manner; but with that proviso believes that football broadcasts should be accessible
to the widest possible range of people including through free-to-air channels;

Stresses that the merit of Article 3a of the current ‘Television without Frontiers Directive’ 97/36/EC (1)

61.
can hardly be overestimated;

Points out that it is vital for professional football that the revenues from television rights be distrib-
62.
uted in a fair way that ensures solidarity between the professional and amateur games, and between com-
peting clubs in all competitions; notes that the current distribution of television revenues in the UEFA
Champions League to a significant degree reflects the size of the clubs' national television markets; notes
that this favours big countries, thereby diminishing the power of clubs from smaller countries;

Therefore invites UEFA together with the Commission to continue to examine mechanisms to create

63.
a more competitive balance in this field by increased redistribution;

(1) OJ L 202, 30.7.1997, p. 60.

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64.
Points out that the televised broadcasting of sports competitions is increasingly taking place on
encrypted and pay TV channels, and that such competitions are thus becoming inaccessible to a number
of consumers;

Doping

Recommends that the prevention of and fight against doping should constitute an important concern
65.
for the Member States; calls for a policy aimed at preventing and combating doping and stresses the need to
fight irregularities through checks, research, testing,
long-term monitoring by independent doctors and
through education and, at the same time, prevention and training; calls on professional clubs to adopt a
pledge to combat doping and to monitor compliance through internal checks;

*

*

*

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments

66.
and the parliaments of the Member States, UEFA, FIFA, EPFL, European Club Forum and FIFPro.

P6_TA(2007)0101

The integration of new Member States in the CAP

European Parliament resolution of 29 March 2007 on the integration of the new Member States
into the CAP (2006/2042(INI))

The European Parliament,

— having regard to Article 33 of the Treaty establishing the European Community,

— having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1268/1999 of 21 June 1999 on Community support for
pre-accession measures for agriculture and rural development in the applicant countries of central and
eastern Europe in the pre-accession period (1),

— having regard to the Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Czech Republic, the Republic of
Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of
Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak
Republic and the adjustment to the Treaties on which the European Union is founded (2),

— having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 of 29 September 2003 establishing common
rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support
schemes for farmers (3),

— having regard to Council Decision 2004/281/EC of the Council of 22 March 2004 adapting the Act
concerning the conditions of accession of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of
Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of
Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic and the adjustment to
the Treaties on which the European Union is founded, following the reform of the common agricultural
policy (4),

(1) OJ L 161, 26.6.1999, p. 87.
(2) OJ L 236, 23.9.2003, p. 33.
(3) OJ L 270, 21.10.2003, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2013/2006 (OJ L 384, 29.12.2006,

p. 13).

(4) OJ L 93, 30.3.2004, p. 1.