Memorandum from the Football Association
(WP 15)
SECTION 1—INTRODUCTION
1. The FA, founded in 1863, is the governing
body of the game in England. Under its Articles of Association,
The FA cannot pay dividends—it is a not-for-profit organisation
that distributes funds for the benefit of the game. The objects
of The FA are set out in its Memorandum of Association but, in
summary, the role of The FA is to promote the sport of football
in every way it sees fit. Its activities are many and varied and
include, amongst other things:
— Promoting participation in the game
at every level (playing, coaching, refereeing, administering and
spectating at matches and supporting through the media);
— Promoting the highest possible standards
and opportunities in the sport both in terms of technical ability
and ethics, and success on the pitch;
— Sanctioning, either directly or indirectly,
all matches, leagues and competitions, played in England;
— Organising a number of senior men's,
youth and women's national competitions (including most notably
The FA Challenge Cup) and the participation of England national
representative teams (again, senior men's, youth and women's teams)
in international matches most notably the men's senior team in
the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championships, and friendly
fixtures; and
— Overseeing in general the administration
of the game in England, at every level, including particularly
overseeing the administration of the disciplinary system which
is applicable to all participants in the game (each club, player,
competition, match official and any other person involved in the
sport in England is bound by the Rules of The FA) and the administration
of refereeing throughout the game.
2. The FA is, in effect, an association
of clubs. It is formed by, and its powers and duties derive from,
its contractual relationships with those clubs and the players
and administrators associated with those clubs. Match officials
(referees and assistant referees) are the other essential participants
in the sport and they are also bound by the Rules of The FA. At
present, there are approximately 40,000 clubs which constitute
membership of The FA, and therefore the English "Football
Family", and of which the overwhelming majority are amateur.
Each competition in which clubs participate has to be sanctioned
by either The FA, or an affiliated association of The FA. There
are approximately 2,000 such competitions in England at present.
The vast majority of those who actively participate as players,
referees and officials are also "customers" of the game,
ie paying spectators, subscribers to TV sports channels and purchasers
of club merchandise. The FA also has to have regard to the interests
of such people as spectators, supporters or customers of the game.
3. The FA is governed by its Council. This
constitutes the board of directors and comprises generally in
the region of 90 members who are drawn from county and other associations,
five representatives from each of the FA Premier League and the
Football League, and 10 "Divisional Representatives"
that are drawn from the Full Member Clubs of The FA (generally
the senior clubs in England and a number of clubs who have contributed
to football in England in the past, of which there are currently
244). Of the Council, the majority represents the county associations,
which in turn represent the amateur game. The shareholders in
The FA are individuals drawn from the county and other associations
and the Full Member Clubs. Again, the representatives from the
county and other associations are very much in the majority. The
shareholders are the body that determine the Rules of The FA
4. The sport is organised throughout the
world in a hierarchy. At the top of the hierarchy, the world-wide
regulation of football takes place under the auspices of the Fédération
Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). FIFA consists of
member national football associations (approximatley 203 in recent
years) which agree to conform to the statutes, regulations and
decisions of FIFA and each of which, in turn, is recognised by
FIFA as governing the sport of football in their respective countries.
FIFA is the organisation ultimately responsible for the Laws of
the Game. This hierarchy creates the world-wide "Football
Family".
5. National associations situated on the
same continent may form confederations which are recognised by
FIFA. In Europe, the confederation of FIFA's member national associations
is the Union des Associations Européenes de Football (UEFA).
In England, the national association recognised by FIFA is The
FA, which is also a member of UEFA.
6. As a Member of UEFA, the European governing
body and FIFA, the World governing body of Football, The FA is
bound by the Statutes and Regulations of those Federations. UEFA
and FIFA organise competitions for national representative teams
as well as club sides (most notably the UEFA Champions' League
and the UEFA Cup). Eligibility for national representative teams
is based on a player's nationality. Players with dual nationality
may select the national association they wish to represent but
may represent only one association and commit themselves to that
association by playing in a recognised, competitive fixture from
Under 16 level upwards.
SECTION 2—HOW
THE OBJECTIVES
APPLY TO
THIS ISSUE
7. The objectives of promotion of participation
and promotion of greatest opportunity are most relevant to this
issue. This applies to all persons, regardless of national team
eligibility. However, The Football Association is responsible
for the England national representative teams and inevitably,
for a number of reasons, has an interest in ensuring that the
opportunities exist for the development of home-grown talent which
is eligible for England selection. It is axiomatic that The Football
Association needs to encourage opportunities for young English
players to gain first team experience, to bring top quality young
players into the national teams.
8. Success on the pitch for the England
team and English clubs promotes interest in the game. The effects
of England's participation in World Cups in 1990 and 1998, and
the European Championships in England in 1996 are clear evidence
of that. A key element in promoting a sport is the promotion of
"heroes" for children. From an English football perspective,
it is seen as important to promote English football heroes and
a successful England team. However, that does not mean that players
who are not qualified to play for England do not have any potential
benefits for the promotion of the game: leading football players
participating in domestic competition have the potential to help
The Football Association's objectives.
9. The task for The Football Association
is therefore to ensure that the balance is maintained between
top-level clubs recruiting overseas players, and the need to provide
top-level playing opportunities for young, home-grown talent.
A vital part of the promotion of the game in England is success
of English clubs in European and World Club competition (there
are of course no restrictions in any event on the numbers of EU/EEA
players from outside England in English club teams). The introduction
of the world's leading players into The Football Association Premier
League and The Football League will stimulate interest in the
game and provide other benefits. This is a possibly conflicting
objective as English clubs, able to compete for the services of
the top players of Europe and the world due to the commercial
success of the game here, are under understandable pressure to
employ the best players from around the world, at the best price.
However, The Football Association sees it as important to invest
in home grown talent for development purposes, as well as long
term economic reasons.
10. The Football Association's initiative
to promote participation, and excellence, is the Charter for Quality.
One of the key objectives is to promote a long term involvement
by leading clubs in their young players, to nurture and develop
talent. This is particularly through the system of Academies and
Centres of Excellence. The Football Association, FA Premier League
and the Football League is investing considerable sums in the
development of young players in England through the Charter for
Quality, and the Academies being established around the country.
This has been supported actively by Government, particularly through
the DCMS, and Sport England in provision of Lottery funding. The
Professional Footballers' Association and the FFE&VTS Ltd
are also integral parts of the programme, and its funding.
The FA is aware that the investment being made
in youth development may take some time to yield a return in terms
of developed players, and in the interim clubs will seek to recruit
players from within England as well as from other EU/EEA nations
and beyond, in order to achieve success on a season to season
basis. However, one of the mid to long term objectives must be
to promote the opportunities for home developed players—which
could not exist if clubs employ the leading world talent on a
shorter term business strategy.
11. Of the total number of registered players,
the numbers of EU/EEA registered players excluding UK nationals
are 155 (out of 866) in The FA Premier League and 180 (out of
1,896) in The Football League. The number of non-EU/EEA players
registered with FA Premier League and Football League clubs has
risen over the past 19 years from two in 1980-81 to 28 immediately
prior to the "Bosman" ruling by the European Court in
Season 1994-95, and to 36 in 1995-96 and, at the last count, 48
in 1999-2000.
SECTIONS 3—PAST
CRITERIA
12. Work permit criteria have been operated
with FA involvement since 1978. Criteria have been used to determine
applications, with only minor modifications, for a number of years
since that year. The overriding principle was that only players
of the highest quality should be granted. The FA considers that
still to be the vitally important principle. Work permits were
to be issued only to players who would make "a significant
contribution to the development of the British game at its highest
level". The previous criteria also took account of international
appearances, any transfer fee, the salary being offered under
a player's contract in England and, of course, a thorough search
for resident (EU/EEA) labour; these combined to give a full picture
of each application.
13. The FA, the Professional Footballers'
Association and either the FA Premier League or Football League
would be asked for their comments on each permit application.
Comments from the footballing bodies were collated by The FA and
forwarded to the Overseas Labour Service.
14. Applications for permit extensions at
the end of each season ensured that players, who were not making
a significant contribution to the game, by failing to play in
approximately 75 per cent of their club's matches, did not have
permits renewed and so the quality of permit players was maintained.
This system led to issues for clubs which were unable to play
(or to pay) those players whose permits were not extended. The
club would therefore have to sell the player concerned. Under
FIFA statutes, the club would have to reach agreement with the
player and pay off the remainder of his contract and attempt to
recover some of that cost by selling the player's registration
to an overseas club. In what was a buyer's market, the club rarely
received what they could have negotiated given time to release
the player.
15. In a few recent cases, concerns were
raised over the relevance of the value of a player's contract
and the apparent pressure on clubs to increase the remuneration
package to help ensure a successful application. Clubs would complain
that they were being penalised financially for successfully identifying
a world talent, with a low transfer value and successfully negotiating
a lower salary than might otherwise apply. The appeal process
allowed clubs to increase the salary to a player if it was felt
this was proving to be a stumbling block for an application: however,
clubs considered it to be strange that they had to offer more
money to the player, even though he was happy with the original
salary offered. The Football Association would agree that the
transfer fee/salary factors may have led to problems. The appeal
process, however, allowing a prospective employer to change the
terms of an offer, brought the whole process into question.
16. The search for resident labour was,
in our view, a vital element of an application. Often a resident
search was supported by poor quality evidence from the applicant.
SECTION 4—CURRENT
CRITERIA AND
ARRANGEMENTS
17. The criteria changed in June 1999 and
will be known to the Committee. Comments on these criteria, if
they are to continue, are as follows.
18. The Football Association has expressed
its concern over the application of FIFA rankings for national
associations when assessing the quality of an individual player.
We consider that it may be more appropriate to consider FIFA rankings
on border-line applications only or to consider the ranking of
the country in which the applicant is currently playing, eg a
player of Liberian nationality but transferring from a career
in a top league in Italy or Germany would be accepted more readily
than one transferring directly from Liberia.
19. Permits had previously been issued annually.
Issuing permits for the duration of a player's contract (up to
three years) puts the risk of the investment firmly in the club's
domain. This allows clubs to release unsuccessful players without
the pressure that accompanied an extension application, which
was then refused. Permits for the period of a contract will also
allow permit players to be used as squad players, as this is becoming
common practice at the top of the game—even for players
of the highest quality. We also agree with the change that there
will be no need for a player to play 75 per cent of his club's
games in order to qualify for a renewed permit at the end of each
season.
20. The Football Association considers that
allowing permits for the duration of contracts will lead to an
increase in the number of permit players but believes the increase
should not be material.
21. It is in our view logical that permits
are not issued for players on trial. If a player is of the highest
calibre, a club will not need to determine this through a trial
period. There are arguments about allowing players time to see
if they will "settle in". The Football Association would
not support this view under the exiting criteria.
22. Since the new criteria and appeals process
there have been a number of cases which give The Football Association
great cause for concern. The appeals process seems to allow an
applicant to present arguments that are unreleated to the criteria,
or to turn the appeal process more into a negotiation which is
not the intention. Numbers of permit players are on the increase.
SECTION 5—FUTURE
ARRANGEMENTS
23. Considerable dissatisfaction has been
expressed at work permit arrangements. There are inevitably conflicts
of interest in relation to each case which may be difficult to
resolve. An alternative system that has been proposed most often
is a quota system. The Football Association can see some merit
in such a system.
24. A quota of two non-EU/EEA players in
The FA Premier League, two in The Football League Division 1 and
one each in Divisions 2 and 3 has been proposed by The Football
League. This would be a large increase in potential numbers of
permit players. It also seems to us that promotion and relegation
between divisions could create difficulties. There would then
be a problem as between The Football League Division 3 and the
Football Conference. However, The Football Association would not
in any event support quotas at these levels as they do not seem
to be consistent with the overriding objective. We cannot see
how a player of high world quality could, or should, be attracted
to a club below Division 1 in any event.
25. A concern is that a quota system will
encourage all clubs to take up their quota, regardless of the
quality of each individual, with the resultant increase in non-EU/EEA
players in the English game.
At present a few clubs have three or four permit
players. Consideration would have to be given to reducing those
clubs to the limit of any quota which may be introduced.
26. A quota system might allow leading clubs
to recruit players of their choice such as very young players
who would not qualify under the current system as it takes time
to build up the 75 per cent international appearance record—previous
systems have not allowed this. Such a system would put the risk
of selection firmly with the clubs (although it would likely lead
to an increase in permit players in England). If there was a limit,
there is an argument that a club would only use up one place on
a player of proven or potential world quality.
27. On balance, a quota of two in The FA
Premier League and one in The Football League might be workable
although this would be subject to further research and consultation.
There would be a need to address issues arising from a club dropping
out of Division 1. It appears to us that due to the increase in
numbers of permit players, and the trend for more applications,
that this would set a realistic and reasonable figure having regard
to the potential conflicts. Regulations would be required to ensure
that the system was not abused.
SECTON 6—CONCLUSION
28. The Football Association's overriding
objective is to promote participation, and the best possible opportunities
for players in England. On an evaluation of the many conflicting
views, The Football Association's position is that players of
the highest quality in the English game are likely to have beneficial
effects. However, in an environment where EU/EEA citizens not
qualified to play for England are able to move freely into the
English game, it is our conclusion that efforts must be made to
preserve quality wherever possible. We are not averse to a quota
system, provided that quality is maintained; and we consider that
if the current system continues to fail to deliver what is required—a
consistent approach and high quality players only granted permits—then
a quota system may be a viable alternative. The clubs themselves
would ensure that only quality players were brought in.
The Football Association
October 1999
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