Fair Play for Football Supporters

http://fairplayfc.org/

I heard an interview yesterday afternoon on TS with Jean ­Louis Dupont, the lawyer taking the fight to UEFA.

He said that more 'big' clubs supporters have now signed up to the campaign and they are very close to taking the legal process to the next level.

I can't find a podcast to post the interview, but if I do, I get it on here.

It would be absolutely fantastic if this stupid rule got challenged and overturned in court, I can just see Plattini and his bumchums whinging like little cry babies now.

I'd go after Messi, Ronaldo and Bale if it was....sticking a big 2 fingers up to UEFA as we sign them.

Just a little overview and questions posted by fans to establish the core arguments over FFP.

Exclusive interview from our lawyer, Jean-Louis Dupont.

YOU FILED A COMPLAINT ON BEHALF OF BRITISH, BELGIAN AND FRENCH SUPPORTERS. HOW DID THEY CONTACT YOU ?

Some fans showed their interest in the approach of Mr. Striani from the outset and asked to be kept informed of developments. When sanctions were taken against certain clubs, FFP stopped being an abstract concept and became something very concrete. This or that club could not recruit this particular player. I think that’s what motivated these fans to express further their opposition to the rule requirement of financial break-even.

CAN OTHER FANS JOIN THE COMPLAINT AND HOW ?

Everyone is free to do what he considers fair and useful. And if some fans, as consumers of the end product of football, want to join the action in progress they are free to do so. That would hearten undoubtedly supporters who have already joined by the legal process.

TO WHOM IS THE COMPLAINT FILED ?

First, with the European Commission. Second, before the Court of First Instance in Brussels. In both cases, supporters joined the existing actions initiated a year ago by Mr. Striani.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN ARGUMENTS OF SUPPORTERS AGAINST FINANCIAL FAIR PLAY ?

The UEFA rule, stating that “clubs cannot repeatedly spend more than their generated revenue”, is in terms of European competition law an anticompetitive agreement since it prohibits a club owner to invest his or her own money in strengthening its workforce, the players. It is therefore a restriction of investments, which is deemed to be a major “crime” in competition law.

This has the effect, on the one hand, to fossilize the current position of clubs (it is not possible anymore for an average club being bought by an ambitious investor who, having taken a financial risk for a few years, enables it to become a club at a higher level) and thus ensure that the existing elite become the elite ad infinitum (a type of NBA which dare not speak its name).

On the other hand, since the funding of growth by a club’s owner is no longer allowed, the economic pressure on the fans will surely grow. In short, fans will start paying more for an inferior product … What I think fans have not understood is that the UEFA rule is bad not only for fans of some clubs (PSG etc.) but also for the fans of all other clubs that could have in the future attracted ambitious investors and that, as a consequence of the UEFA rule, will not.

TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR SOME CLUBS WHO FACE FINANCIAL PENALTIES AND HAVE DELAYED INVESTMENT PLANS. HOW SOON DO YOU EXPECT A RULING ?

We hope to receive a decision by April 2015.

WE OFTEN READ THAT THE COMPLAINT YOU FILED ON BEHALF OF THE PLAYER’S AGENT DANIEL STRIANI WAS REJECTED BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION. IS THAT TRUE ?

Not at all. The Commission merely stated that it intends to dismiss the complaint (but, for the moment, it has not), not because it is unfounded but because the Court of First Instance in Brussels, as the Commission puts it, is “well placed” to resolve the dispute in particular because this court may “make a reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ)”. In so doing, the Brussels Court can nullify the UEFA rule throughout the European Union on the basis of Article 101.2 of the Treaty on European Union. So either it will be the Commission that resolves the dispute or it will be the Court of First Instance in Brussels (maybe, as we are seeking, by first making a referral to the ECJ).

WHY DOES UEFA OBJECT TO THE CASE BEING DETERMINED THROUGH A PRELIMINARY RULING BY THE ECJ (SUCH AS, FOR EXAMPLE, IN THE BOSMAN CASE) ?

Good question! UEFA said loud and clear that the rule is fully compliant with EU law and that those who complain are simply troublemakers. Yet it fights with the energy of despair to ensure that the ECJ has no input into this. It is a mystery to me since if UEFA is right, it has nothing to fear from the ECJ, that would simply confirm the legality of the UEFA rule!

ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE CHANCES OF THE PROCEEDINGS INITIATED BY SUPPORTERS LEADING TO A WITHDRAWAL OF FINANCIAL FAIR PLAY ?

Yes, I am very optimistic. The vast majority of legal and economic authors who have published on the regulations came to the same conclusions as we have : it violates EU law and, moreover, is absolutely ineffective. And there are other mechanisms that would foster genuine financial fair play without violating fundamental EU freedoms (and without fossilizing the market structure). So, in essence, the case is very strong. It simply requires complainants to have the patience to let the legal process move at its own pace

If FFP gets outlawed someone with more money than Sheikh Mansour will come along and usurp us anyway.

These FFP restrictions have held us up just long enough for clubs like Barca, Madrid, Bayern and even Utd to be able to consolidate themselves and go again.

Do you really think Adidas would have paid £75M a year if Utd had fallen three years ago rather than last year?

The 'big' clubs have use FFP to slow us down and buy themselves time.

Actually, I hadn't even considered the consequences to the pockets of the fans that much, I was just used to having to pay more every year.  But he's right; the only way any club can make more money is to pump the fans for it.  It's precious little wonder that the atmosphere at some clubs is so crap, because it's only the wealthy day-trippers who can afford to go, squeezing the loyal working class fans out of the picture.

Topdawg wrote:If FFP gets outlawed someone with more money than Sheikh Mansour will come along and usurp us anyway.

Didn't know there was anyone