Bosman times 10

New 'Malaja rule' could change soccer forever

LONDON (Reuters) -- Soccer may shortly be putting up the sort of advertisements more familiar to movie fans: "Coming to a club near you: more action, more danger -- it's Bosman II."

The alarming sequel to the December 1995 verdict which changed the face of European football has sneaked up almost unnoticed and it could change soccer in an even more dramatic way than the original Bosman ruling did.

The lack of impact so far has had two causes -- firstly, the ruling has affected only France up to now; secondly, it came about because of a woman basketball player.

But agents for footballers of many countries beyond the European Union, including eastern Europe and north Africa, are preparing to make Lilia Malaja as significant a personality in soccer history as Jean-Marc Bosman.

The European Court judgment prompted by the Belgian's move from FC Liege to Dunkerque swept away contract retention rules and restrictions on the movement of EU citizen players within the European community's 15 member nations.

Malaja's legal victory, ratified by the French Council of State in December and upholding her right as a Polish citizen to seek work in France, threatens to extend all the provisions and rights secured by Bosman to 24 countries initially and then almost 100 more.

That threatens a second flood of bargain-buy footballers through western Europe, seeking to share in the game's richest environment.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has warned that every aspect of the game, from youth level development to national teams, will be affected.

"Bosman to the power of 10," Blatter has called the Malaja ruling. No doubt, as with Bosman, the game's rulers will try to pull up the drawbridge. But, again as with Bosman, it appears inevitable that the demands of international law will force them into surrender.

Malaja is always described as Polish. That is her citizenship now but she was born in Kazakhstan on Dec. 17, 1967 and her basketball career has taken her to Belarus, Poland, Spain, France and Israel.

It was during her spell in France, in June 1998, that Malaja signed for Strasbourg.

Player limit

French basketball clubs were permitted a maximum of two non-EU players and, having reached their limit, Strasbourg were refused permission by the domestic federation to register Malaja.

Lawyers for club and player appealed to a Strasbourg tribunal that Malaja had a non-restrictive right to work in France under the terms of a state treaty signed with Poland in 1991. It laid down that no labour discrimination could be applied to a Polish citizen seeking work in France.

In January 1999, the tribunal rejected Malaja's claim but it was then upheld by the Court of Appeal in Nancy in February 2000. The basketball authorities then took the matter to the highest court in France and, at the end of last year, lost.

The judgment applies directly, thus far, only to French sport. But the principle has been conceded by a superior national court within the EU. Sooner or later player agents will flex their muscles in pursuit of similar concessions throughout the EU.

Indeed, they may short-cut the process by seeking a single European Commission order ratifying the concession for all countries possessing similar labour agreements with the EU.

Blatter believes that the Malaja ruling, combined with the enlargement of the EU in 2004, will throw European football's doors wide open to players from more than 100 countries.

As he points out, in June 2000 in Cotonou, Benin, the European Union signed similar blanket agreements with 77 countries from the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions.

Mass immigration

He says: "The mass immigration of players from countries with associate agreements will threaten the sort of investment in youth development which has brought us players such as Rafael Van der Vaart at Ajax in Holland and Wayne Rooney at Everton in England."

French league regulations permit clubs to employ a maximum of five non-EU players. Philippe Piat, president of the French players' union, says: "The only certain consequence of removing this restriction is that more French players will be made redundant -- especially in the second division."

Some 20 of the 130 non-EU players registered with the French league could qualify for EU status under the Malaja ruling.

Blatter, in general agreement with UEFA on this issue, wants the European Commission to grant football a six-plus-five exception. This would force clubs to field at least six 'home nationals' per match.

"We need to bring some common sense back into the game after the economic bonanza of the last few years," says Blatter. "It's essential we maintain the delicate balance between national identity and the international diversity which enriches our sport."

Blatter believes that the deregulation inspired by both Bosman and the television rights explosion is central to the game's present financial crisis.

On the opposite side, football clubs such as Strasbourg say it is precisely because of the financial crisis that they need the right to reduce their costs by signing cheaper foreign players.

Strasbourg's president, Patrick Proisy, says: "Players from these associated countries have salaries six or seven times below the basic rate for a footballer in France."

Unsurprisingly, he waited only a matter of days after the Malaja ruling before seeking to register Czechs David Kobylik and Vaclav Drobny for the second half of the French season.

Proisy has warned: "We will go back to court if we have to."

Blatter and UEFA's president, Lennart Johansson, still hope the EU will grant sport certain exemptions from the Treaty of Rome. But the prospects are slim.

The European Union and its commission have more important issues to resolve. Most significant is the one Blatter fears the most -- next year's delicately-negotiated expansion by the power of 10.

 

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