AFP, Brussels :
Some of the most important football action of the summer could take place on Thursday not on a pitch but in a Belgium court and could transform the transfer market.
More than two decades after the Bosman case created freedom of contract, ended nationality quotas and shifted power to the wealthiest clubs, a Brussels court will hear an appeal on third party ownership (TPO) of players, which is banned by football’s world governing body, FIFA.
TPO allows investors to hold a financial stake in players and cash in by taking a cut when they move between clubs during their careers in lucrative transfer deals.
Critics say it deprives players of control over their careers and former UEFA president Michel Platini, now banned from football following a graft probe, called it “a type of slavery”.Football authorities worry that involvement of third party owners with clubs creates conflicts of interest and favours clubs who can afford to form continuing relationships with agents or player owners.
Supporters claim it helps poorer clubs sign and develope young players and spreads the burden of transfer fees because they only buy part of the player’s registration.
The current case was brought by Belgian third-division club Seraing which in January 2015 signed an agreement with investment fund Doyen Sports based on the potential returns from TPO.
Seraing refused to accept FIFA’s ban, imposed four months later, on TPO and has already been fined 150,000 euros ($175,900, œ131,720). Their legal action is supported by the Spanish and Portuguese leagues, who are also taking a case to the European Commission.
FIFA, supported by European governing body UEFA and global players union Fifpro, are fiercely opposed to TPO.
“One leg owned by one, a leg by another, transforming work contracts into financial products,” said Fifpro president Philippe Piat.
Seraing’s lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont, who also worked for Jean-Marc Bosman when he won his landmark case in 1995, argued that: “Under the guise of protecting ethical values, FIFA are using their regulatory power to promote their own economic interests and those of their ultimate members, the clubs in monopolising profits in a transfer market that they created and regulate.”
“Why can’t players own their own rights?” he asked.In the traditional model, player registrations are bought and sold by football clubs for an agreed transfer fee.
In reality players, their agents and former clubs often receive a cut of the fee as part of the deal, but full ownership of the player simply passes between the clubs involved.
