The European Club Association’s General Assembly

Geneva, 8 September 2009

Dear Chairman Mr Rummenigge,

Dear Members of the European Club Association,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour for me to be here today at your General Assembly and I thank the organisers for inviting me. You are a young organisation, but in the last one and a half year we have already engaged in a constructive dialogue, for which I would like to thank you.

As you all know, the current term of office of the European Commission is coming to an end. In a few months, a new college will be in place. It is thus time for me to take stock of my mandate as European Commissioner in charge of Sport.

The last five years have been marked by unprecedented developments in the field of sport at EU level. The highest point was the adoption of the White Paper on Sport in July 2007 – a landmark policy document that spells out the first comprehensive strategy on sport by the European Commission.

The White Paper is based on existing EU policies and programmes. It is also intended to pave the way for a possible future EU competence for sport as enshrined in Article 165 of the Lisbon Treaty. I am proud to say that the implementation of the “Pierre de Coubertin” Action Plan accompanying the White Paper is progressing successfully: roughly two years after its adoption, 80% of the actions foreseen in the Action Plan are in course of implementation or could already be concluded.

If everything goes to plan, the Lisbon Treaty will come into force at the beginning of 2010, triggering some important consequences for sport at EU level, including the creation of a formal framework for political cooperation on sport in the Council, the possibility for the EU to adopt a Sport Programme and better mainstreaming of sport in other EU policies.

If I now look at the developments in the field of football over the past five years, I note with pleasure that significant achievements have been reached on areas that were once a source of conflict.

The creation of your Association, in January 2008, is an important milestone in this respect. The establishment of ECA and its inclusion in UEFA’s Professional Football Strategy Council shows that the major stakeholders in football can come to constructive agreements and put aside their differences for the greater benefit of the sport itself.

Another essential step was the launch of the Committee for Social Dialogue in professional football in Paris in July 2008. I welcome your participation in this Committee, which implements one of the key points of the White Paper, and I look forward to the concrete outputs that the Committee will produce.

Let me now turn to some topics which I know are of particular interest to you as they touch upon the relation of EU law with the world of sport, and football in particular.

First, let me spend a few words on the hotly debated issue of the specificity of sport. The Commission is often called on to better recognise the specificity of sport. In these cases I like to remind that the specificity of sport cannot be legally defined in a general way.

As in other areas (e.g. culture), it is simply not possible to define all the elements of the specificity of sport in abstracto. The specificity of sport should rather be seen as all the characteristics which make sport special. These characteristics must be taken into account when concrete problems are addressed.

The White Paper on Sport and the accompanying Staff Working Document take a clear position on the issue and provide a detailed analysis of all decisions of the European Court of Justice and the European Commission which have recognised the specificity of sport. Thus, the Commission not only recognises the specificity of sport, but also provides valuable guidance regarding its practical application.

The Commission stands ready to conduct further dialogue with sport stakeholders in order to provide additional clarity on our position on the specificity of sport and to identify, on a theme-by-theme basis, where the main challenges could be expected.

An area where the Commission has recognised the specific needs and nature of sport, and where a positive compromise has been found between the promotion of sporting issues and the respect of EU rules is the area of free movement of players.

I am referring here to last year’s approval by the Commission of UEFA’s Home Grown Players rule. The Commission considered that the objectives set by UEFA when introducing the rule, such as fostering the training of players and promoting more balanced competitions, are objectives of general interest; in addition, we estimated these objectives as being legitimate and proportionate.

On the other hand, the Commission considers that rules establishing quotas of players based on nationality, or on criteria too close to nationality, such as the ‘6+5’ rule proposed by FIFA, would clearly violate EU law, as they would constitute a direct discrimination.

The EC Treaty (Art. 12 and Art. 39) prohibits any discrimination on grounds of nationality and the European Court of Justice has repeatedly confirmed that this principle applies to professional sport, where sportspeople can be assimilated to workers.

The Commission, in its role as guardian of the Treaties, cannot therefore accept the ‘6+5’ rule in its present formulation. The European Parliament also rejected the ‘6+5’ rule in its Report on the White Paper on Sport adopted in May 2008.

Besides being incompatible with EU law, the ‘6+5’ rule raises a political problem, as it clearly goes against the principle of free movement of workers, which is an objective of the European Union.

Moreover, the rule does not seem to be an appropriate and proportionate solution to the problems raised by FIFA. If the concern is to promote the training of young European football players and to have more balanced competitions, then the solution should most probably be found in a combination of several rules or measures, provided that they are in line with the fundamental principles of the Treaty.

The Commission is open to dialogue with FIFA and the other football stakeholders with a view to further exploring the nature and scope of the problems affecting professional football, and to identify solutions which do not violate fundamental EC principles.

I am aware that another issue, linked to the free movement of players, has raised your attention in the recent months, namely the issue of contractual stability.

This is an area where a compromise was reached between the Commission and football authorities back in 2001, after lengthy and difficult negotiations in the follow-up to the Bosman case.

The results of this compromise are enshrined in FIFA’s Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players; they are also included in the Staff Working Document accompanying the White Paper on Sport.

I understand that certain provisions laid down in FIFA’s Regulations, notably article 17, have been interpreted with a great degree of discretion by judicial authorities in sport. I am referring to the two diverging rulings of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the Webster and Matuzalem cases.

A better definition of the principle of contractual stability might help clarifying the rules applicable in cases of unilateral breach of contract, even though each case should be assessed individually on the basis of the specific circumstances of the case concerned. In addition, any amendment brought to FIFA’s Regulations should be negotiated with the interested parties and be compatible with EU free movement principles.

An alternative instrument for channelling discussions on contractual stability is provided by the Social Dialogue Committee. I trust that constructive dialogue within the Committee will lead to solutions which are endorsed by all the social partners.

The last topic I would like to raise with you is the issue of financial discipline. This has never been as relevant for football as in the ongoing financial and economic crisis. Respect of strict criteria related to financial discipline is essential for football clubs in two respects.

Firstly, financial restraint rules ensure that no club drops out of the competition for finance-related reasons, such as insolvency or bankruptcy. Secondly, appropriate financial measures may contribute to reducing inequality in revenue distribution among clubs participating in the same competition.

Let me welcome the landmark agreement that was reached at the end of August in Monaco between UEFA and ECA on the principle of “financial fair play”. I believe this is a positive outcome of a very long work and I congratulate the ECA Board for its efforts in developing a system which will contribute to improving the financial fairness and the long-term stability of clubs in Europe.

Amongst the different measures discussed as being an effective tool to achieve financial discipline, salary caps have recently emerged as a possible solution for professional football clubs.

Regarding the issue of introducing wage-capping for elite professional sports players or the possibility of a cap on transfers, the Commission is aware of the existence of salary caps in some professional sports leagues in Europe and the United States.

If a concrete proposal to introduce a salary cap system in professional football in Europe were to be put forward, the Commission would have to analyse it on its individual merits, taking into account its objective and possible restrictive effects, in order to assess its compatibility with EU free movement and competition rules.

The issues of financial fairness and salary caps will be discussed in depth at the EU Conference on Licensing Systems for Club Competitions, organised by the European Commission in Brussels on 17-18 September. I am glad that ECA and its members will attend this event and I look forward to a fruitful discussion on these and on the other topics that will be debated at the conference.

Dear Friends,

The current crisis is visible not only in the financial sector and in the economy. It is a crisis of values first of all. Sport is a generator of values. Therefore I would like to invite you to take even more active part in promotion access to sport and societal role of sport in our times!

Thank you for your attention.