Statement on Football Transfer Fees

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 21st Sep 2000

Some months ago I wrote to all professional football clubs in my constituency of Yorkshire and the Humber seeking their views on several football related issues including the transfer system.

The replies I had indicated quite clearly that football clubs see themselves as businesses. One went as far to say "I believe that the ability to operate effectively across both Europe and the rest of the world in tandem with other commercial entities is fundamental."

That being the case then, as with any other business in the EU, the principle of free movement of labour is paramount. One couldn't conceive in the modern age of a situation where, for example, academics were only allowed to take up positions at other universities, unless some form of financial compensation was paid. From the players' point of view you can imagine a situation where a player is on a long-term contract at a club, is playing in the reserves because he is not part of the new manager's plans and can't be sold because nobody is willing to come in with a high enough fee, possibly because he is only in the reserves. A player could spend 2-3 seasons out of a very short career of say 10-11 years in this way.

This is the situation facing Steve McManaman at Real Madrid at the moment. Clearly this is not fair to the player.

Having said this I do not believe, from what I have seen of the comments by Vivane Reding, one of the European Commissioners responsible for this issue, that it is the intention to scrap the transfer system completely. Indeed it seems likely that the system will survive in some form.

If the free movement principle is to be met, it might be more appropriate to consider what should be a suitable length of contract (in my opinion it could be up to twelve months) and how compensation could be met, based on the player's age, experience, time left on the contract and so on. Also there needs to be some decision at what point of the season players could leave, i.e. transfer windows, so as to avoid destabilising transfer scrambles towards the end of the season.

What needs to be protected especially is the investment that clubs make in their football academies. Here too some form of compensation for players up to a certain age, say 24, would in my view be appropriate recognition of the cost of development of those young players.

Interestingly the majority of the clubs responding to my survey said they were not in favour of limiting the number of foreign (ie non-EU players) in England.

Finally, although football clubs stated to me in the survey that they see themselves as businesses, they seek to be treated as a special case and so be exempted from the free movement principle entirely.

I would be more sympathetic to this claim if football clubs did more to integrate with the fans and the broader, local community in general. For example, I would want to see fans represented at board level and annual reports made by clubs on their activities in the community, such as schools liaison, anti-racism events and so on.

Clubs such as Bournemouth and Charlton Athletic are good examples of clubs which take these aspects seriously and which could be used as cases of 'best practice.'

I hope this clarifies my views. I would say that I continue to have discussions with football club chairmen in my area. I will be posting more information on my website when appropriate.