Players threaten to pull out

Players threaten to pull out
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

ZURICH, OCTOBER 7: Players' representative Gordon Taylor threatened to pull out of talks aimed at finding an alternative to the present transfer system.

Taylor accused UEFA, European football's governing body, of stalling in a bid to maintain the status quo, but this claim was strongly rejected by UEFA itself.

If the existing transfer system is scrapped, its replacement could usher in free movement of players with those in the lower paying leagues inclined to move to higher paying clubs.

Taylor, chairman of the international players' union FIFPro, is sceptical about agreement being reached by the October 31 deadline imposed by the European Commission.

In a statement released following Friday's session chaired by FIFA president Sepp Blatter, FIFPro threatened to quit the Transfer Task Force (TTF) established to find consensus between clubs, associations, leagues and players.

``After several working sessions and very long discussions, FIFPro has come to the conclusion that UEFA (European football's governing body) and the professional leagues have only one objective namely gaining time and retaining the present system at any cost.

``FIFPro is the only body to propose a solution that could give an answer to the European Commission, but for unknown reasons, it has not been adopted until now,'' said the statement.

Taylor will highlight his concerns to Competitions' commissioner Mario Monti at a pre-arranged meeting in Brussels next week. However, he will travel to Zurich again before that ``more in hope than expectation'' of finding a solution. The latest development cast a huge cloud over the whole debate.

Taylor's major argument is that the players believe that the EC law is on their side, but rather than find common ground, UEFA and the clubs have sought instead to bend the rules in their own favour.

UEFA was stunned by Taylor's outburst and immediately launched a rebuttal which does not bode well for next week's crucial talks.

``We refute the suggestion that we have dragged our feet on this matter,'' said UEFA Director of Communications Mike Lee. ``We have only been fully involved since the beginning of September,'' he added.

``We have been trying to make progress, but other forces seem to be at play within FIFPro which seem intent on stopping this from happening.''

``We believe that there is still an opportunity for a positive solution that works for football and is considered to be within European law. But this is not an easy solution to find.''

He added, ``Gordon Taylor has been very helpful and constructive in all our discussions and therefore this statement has come as something of a surprise.''

Blatter, who is not part of the Task Force, will however continue political lobbying with proposed meetings with Prime Minister Tony Blair and his French and German counterparts Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder.

Changes in Korean WC committee

SEOUL: South Korea's 2002 World Cup Organizing Committee on Saturday named Korea Football Association president Chung Mong-Joon and Seoul Olympic Sports Promotion Foundation chairman Lee Yun-Taek as new co-heads. The two replaced Park Seh-Jik who stepped down in July after a row with Chung, a vice-president of the international football federation (FIFA) and previous culture and tourism Minister Park Jie-Won. Chung had been vice chairman of the organizing committee while Lee has served as a committee member since its official launch in 1996.

Wembley gets a farewell MILAN: The glitterati of Italian football queued up on Saturday to pay tribute to England's Wembley Stadium on the last day it will be used for a major football match before it is demolished and redeveloped.

And while most Italian eyes were focused squarely on the qualifier with Romania in Milan, many of the biggest names in Italian football took time out to share their memories with Corriere Dello Sport newspaper about the demise of the so-called `Venue of Legends'.