Memorandum submitted by the Professional
Players' Federation
1. The Professional Players' Federation
(PPF)[1]
is the national organisation for the professional player associations
in the United Kingdom. The 11 player associations in membership
represent over 15,600 professional sportsmen and women. The PPF
is dedicated to promoting, protecting and developing the collective
interests of these players.
2. We are grateful for the opportunity to
provide our views on the European Commission's White Paper on
Sport to the Committee and are pleased to highlight the following
issues for your consideration.
OVERVIEW
3. The PPF felt that the White Paper struck
a relatively sensible balance between recognising the specificity
of sport whilst ensuring that professional sportsmen and women
were still protected by employment laws, human rights legislation
and the ultimate recourse to the European Court of Justice.
4. It is important to recognise that professional
sportsmen and women are also employees. Whilst a few high profile
names earn superstar salaries the majority of professional players
have more precarious careers, often on short term contracts and
always just one bad injury away from losing their job.
5. The need for all European sportsmen and
women to remain within the jurisdiction of the European Court
of Justice is essential. The case law that has developed in the
ECJ suggests that the courts are capable of recognising the special
nature of sport when considering specific cases. Any suggestion
that sport should be granted an exemption from European laws needs
to be treated very carefully. Past experiences have shown that
sports bodies can not necessarily be trusted to protect the rights
of players.
6. The experiences of the anti-trust exemption
for baseball in the United States suggest that there is little
benefit from such exemptions particularly when compared to other
American sports that do not have such an exemption.[2]
SOCIAL DIALOGUE
7. We support the view within the White
Paper (Paragraph 5.3) that disputes within sport are best handled
through social dialogue between recognised player associations
and employers. Given that the Commission's White Paper shies away
from introducing any new legislation then the PPF believes that
promoting social dialogue should be one of the principle areas
where national and European Governments focus their actions.
8. The agreement in football between FIFPro
and FIFA about the revised transfer regulations after the 1995
Bosman Ruling shows the benefits that social dialogue can bring.
A sensible alternative was agreed which balanced the rights of
individual footballers with the need to protect the specific nature
of professional football. The professional player associations
in all sports have repeatedly proven that they are capable of
acting to safeguard the long term interests of their sport whilst
ensuring players are treated fairly.
9. A number of sports struggle to engage
in meaningful social dialogue due to difficulties in organising
a player association or obstructive employers. The situation is
sometimes even worse in the rest of Europe, especially in the
new member states where player associations are almost unknown.
10. The PPF is actively involved in moves
to establish a cross sport European players' federation (European
Elite Athletes Association) as part of a social dialogue in sport
initiative funded by the Commission. The player associations in
the UK are supportive of such an approach and applaud the Commission
for providing funding to help the formation of the new association.
11. The player associations in England are
some of the best and longest established in the world. This is
an area where we lead Europe and have also taken an active role
in developing international player associations. Anecdotal evidence
from the EEAA suggests that the more effective and involved the
player association is within the sports family then the less the
courts need to intervene.
12. The PPF would welcome the Committee's
support in encouraging HM Government to establish a domestic cross
sport social dialogue group.
TRAINING
13. The quality of training for young players
must be an important element of any successful sports policy.
The White Paper recognises this in Chapter 2.3 (Enhancing the
role of sport in education and training) though it appears to
be more concerned with the education sector as apposed to coaching.
14. The PPF welcomes the Commission's study
into the training of young sportspeople and looks forward to the
final report. The benefits of focussing on sports coaching are
perhaps best demonstrated by the Professional Golfers' Association
(PGA) in the UK.
15. Back in 1996 the PGA recognised the
need to improve the education of golf professionals if Britain
was to be at the forefront of world golf. The PGA radically improved
its training programmes and invested in a national academy. All
would-be professionals are now required to take either a three
year foundation degree in Golf Studies or BA (Hons) in Applied
Golf Management Studies awarded by the University of Birmingham.[3]
This is supported by a Continuous Professional Development programme
which ensures PGA professionals follow a lifetime of learning
in the golf industry.
16. We would contend that the PGA leads
the way in the training and development of its coaches, who in
turn develop the players. This is something that could be usefully
copied by other sports and should form a model for both HM Government's
national coaching policy and any developments by the Commission.
17. Whilst improving coaching will go a
long way to developing world class British players there remains
a problem in many team sports. If good trainees are to develop
into successful professionals then they need regular first team
experience. This requires clubs and managers to take a long term
approach to developing new talent—something that the competitive
nature of professional leagues (with the ever present threat of
the sack for managers) does not foster. All too often clubs will
bring in fully developed overseas players as a short term solution,
whilst the long term health of our national teams suffer.
HOME GROWN
PLAYER RULES
18. The PPF is supportive of moves to promote
opportunities for home grown players. We believe that this is
one of the biggest issues facing professional team sports in the
United Kingdom.
19. The current application of complete
freedom of movement within the Single Market is starting to impact
upon the success of our national teams—particularly in the
less popular professional sports like ice hockey, polo and basketball—and
the failure of the English football team to qualify for Euro 2008
suggests that even our national sport is starting to suffer.[4]
20. The effect of the application of Freedom
of Movement within the Single Market has been dramatically increased
by two factors:
(a) Trading agreements giving workers from
countries outside the single market the same rights as European
nationals have greatly increased the number of players exempt
from work permits.
(b) The different naturalisation regulations
within Europe and relative ease with which some countries grant
nationality (often dual nationality) further increase the pool
of players protected by Freedom of Movement.
21. These factors have led to a large increase
in the number of overseas players working in the UK and this has
inevitably been at the expense of opportunities for players who
are qualified to play for our national team. This effect has been
compounded by changes in the work permit system for non EEA nationals.
This has generally made it easier to work as a professional sportsman
in the UK.[5]
22. Therefore the PPF supports moves to
ensure a minimum number of home grown players in each team. We
believe that when the percentage of non-domestic players in a
sport's premier competition exceeds a certain percentage (say
50%) then quotas could be a proportionate response to protecting
the importance of national teams. Indeed, a legal opinion has
been received by one of our members which gives support to the
application of a proportionate quota (though we recognise that
this is not a view necessarily shared by the Commission and that
it will ultimately need to be decided by the ECJ).
23. Whilst we believe that quotas will be
helpful, they may not be sufficient to ensure the promotion of
home grown talent. The recent experience of voluntary quotas within
professional ice hockey in the UK shows that unless there is strong
support for the principle behind quotas that there is a danger
that teams will undermine the system. Discussions with the Ice
Hockey Players' Association suggests that some squads contained
British players who got very little ice time and were effectively
there to make up the quotas whilst foreign nationals continued
to dominate the sport.
24. The PPF believes that unless the professional
leagues take an active decision to support the national teams
then any moves to promote home grown talent will be fatally undermined.
The PPF is unclear how much importance the top leagues in some
sports give to the success of their national team.
25. The Committee may wish to ask the professional
leagues how important to their sports they consider the success
of the national team to be.
26. The situation in domestic cricket, where
the ECB funds the counties partly according to the number of players
that are qualified for the national team, is one which the PPF
supports. We would welcome any support the Committee is able to
provide in protecting and promoting such an innovative system.
ANTI-RACISM
27. The PPF was disappointed that racism
was grouped together with violence within the White Paper (Chapter
2.6). We are strongly of the opinion that racism is such a major
issue that it needs to be treated separately. Obviously, players
must be entitled to carry out their job without being subject
to racist abuse, but there is more to anti-racism in sport than
this. The PPF would like to see greater emphasis given to the
use of sport to promote racial tolerance within society. This
is especially important within the new member states where there
would appear to be serious issues that need to be addressed.
28. Players have a high profile and can
often lead the way in promoting racial integration and tolerance.
The success of both the Kick It Out and the Show Racism the Red
Card campaigns in football and other player led initiatives as
in cricket shows the benefits that working with players can bring
to anti-racism programmes. The knowledge gained through Kick It
Out over the last twelve years means that the UK is well placed
to take the lead on this issue in Europe.
29. The PPF is keen to promote a cross sport,
European-wide anti-racism campaign through the members of the
European Elite Athletes Association. We would welcome any support
the Committee is able to provide in making the case for funding
to support the dissemination of programmes using sport to promote
racial integration and tolerance.
AGENTS
30. The PPF is aware of practices that are
of concern amongst agents in their dealings with players and clubs.
However, we remain to be convinced of the need for any action
by the Commission on this matter.
SOLIDARITY MECHANISMS
31. The member player associations and PPF
are supportive of solidarity mechanisms for the redistribution
of television monies both to the grass roots of sport and amongst
the professional clubs. We are particularly supportive of the
Football Foundation which has been set up in such a way as to
ensure that the Professional Footballer's Association is involved
in the distribution of funds.
32. The PPF believes that players should
be entitled to a share of any collective media agreements. This
would depend upon who owns image rights and the details within
each player's contract. A collective approach administered through
the player associations could provide funding to support players'
accident and healthcare insurance, education, re-training and
benevolent funds. The benefits of such an approach have been demonstrated
by the arrangements in English football.
IMAGE RIGHTS
33. It was reassuring that the Commission's
White Paper recognised that "A growing part of the economic
value of sports is linked to intellectual property rights".[6]
Disappointingly there was little other mention of this important
area. Admittedly, intellectual property rights are complicated
but this is an area which could benefit from on-going dialogue
between sport's employees, employers and government at a European
and national level.
BETTING
34. The PPF was disappointed that the Commission
chose not to include any reference to sports betting within its
White Paper. We were supportive of the proposals with the Independent
Sports Review for a formal funding mechanism between the betting
industry and sports.
35. It is recognised that there is a view
that such a system may have legal difficulties but we consider
that players (as opposed to clubs or leagues) may have a stronger
legal case for recompense for the additional restrictions that
sports betting markets place upon individuals.
36. The PPF is strongly of the opinion that
there is a need for a consistent European-wide approach to sports
betting. The current arrangements mean that bookmakers can relocate
to other European countries to avoid any national legislation
they dislike. This situation means that bookmakers, especially
internet and telephone based operations, are perilously close
to being outside the law unless there is a consistent European
policy.
CONCLUSION
37. We are grateful for the opportunity
to submit our views on the Commission's White Paper on Sport.
Should the Committee consider it helpful, the PPF and its members
would welcome the opportunity to expand upon any of the points
raised within this paper.
January 2008
1 Prior to May 2007, the PPF was called the Institute
of Professional Sport. Back
2
Baseball has been exempt from American antitrust laws since 1922,
when the Supreme Court ruled in its favour in the case of Federal
Baseball Club of Baltimore, Inc. v National Baseball Clubs. Back
3
The degree course is modular and mixes both theory and practice.
Students work for a minimum of 30 hours per week in a golf environment,
employed by a recognised PGA professional, and study via distance
learning. In addition to the assignments and exams, students attend
a one-week residential course at the National Training Academy
at The Belfry each year. Back
4
The PPF strongly endorses the findings of the PFA's research into
the number of English nationals in the Premier League-Meltdown
published in December 2007. Back
5
Many of the issues raised in the 2000 Education and Employment
Select Committee Inquiry into Work Permits for Overseas Footballers
are still relevant today. Back
6
EC White Paper on Sport, Page 11 Chapter 3.0. Back
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