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’ 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 tranfers, 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.