AFP, Paris :
UEFA and international players’ union FIFPro have lodged a complaint with the European Commission questioning the legality of third-party player ownership, known as TPO, European football’s governing body announced on Wednesday.
“Third-party player ownership is a kind of modern slavery, where you see players belonging to investment funds, or other, generally unidentified, corporate entities,” UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino said.
“Clearly, this is not something that can be accepted by European law and this is precisely why we have now, together with FIFPro, asked the European Commission to investigate and to declare third-party ownership illegal.”
World governing body FIFA have already moved to ban the practice worldwide from May 1 this year.
However, in Europe, the Spanish and Portuguese leagues complained against that decision to the European Commission in February, something which the move by UEFA and FIFPro is aimed against.
“Inherent in the practice of TPO is the desire and ability of so-called ‘investors’ to control and/or influence the transfer activity of players who are the subject of a TPO arrangement (including players who are not even aware that their ‘economic rights’ have been sold to a third party),” added UEFA.
