Memorandum submitted by the Rugby Football
Union
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the governing
body for rugby union in England. The RFU has over 2,000 clubs
and 3,000 schools in membership and a playing population in excess
of 2.2 million.
The RFU is also a founder member of the International
Rugby Board (IRB).
The RFU welcomes the Culture, Media and Sport
Select Committee's decision to hold an inquiry into the European
Commission's White Paper on Sport.
The White Paper covers a considerable number
of policy issues. The RFU understands that the Central Council
for Physical Recreation (CCPR) will be submitting a detailed response
which will cover the full range of issues raised in the paper
and we refer the Committee to this response.
There are two specific matters arising from
the publication of the White Paper that the RFU itself would like
to draw to the Committee's attention.
SAFEGUARDING THE
NATIONAL TEAM
The RFU calls on the Commission to provide greater
support for actions that national governing bodies can take to
enhance and protect their national teams.
The RFU's objective is to develop and grow participation
in the game from playground to Twickenham. Around 80% of the income
of our sport derives from the international game; hence the success
of our national team is crucial to the vitality of our sport.
This means that the local development and training of players
is our highest priority if we are to build successful national
teams and develop long term investment in our sport.
This goal is being eroded by the influx of players
from overseas, particularly following the recent Rugby World Cup
in France, which has seen players joining all of the professional
teams and many of the semi-professional teams. As we prepare for
our future, it is vital that the issues we face surrounding the
development of the national team are addressed.
There is clear evidence that the freedom of
movement of players—and the lack of ability for sport to
impose minimum quotas of home grown players—is affecting
teams not only in England but across the home nations, Europe
and other Unions around the world.
There have been significant problems within
Scotland and Wales, domestically over the influx of players. There
are concerns for the future being expressed across the tri-nations
of Australia, South Africa and New Zealand over the drain of players
to European teams.
But it is the health of the game in England
that is the RFU's primary concern and the effect that the present
legislation has on the standard of the national team.
As a governing body it is our duty to protect
the health of the national team and the sport as a whole and to
achieve this goal we need clarity around the legislation and the
measures that are at our disposal.
The RFU notes that the Commission is sympathetic
to some of these issues. The White Paper notes that sport has
certain specific characteristics, including:
The specificity of the sport structure, including
notably the autonomy and diversity of sport organisations, a pyramid
structure of competitions from grassroots to elite level and organised
solidarity mechanisms between the different levels and operators,
the organisation of sport on a national basis, and the principle
of a single federation per sport.
It also states that:
Rules requiring that teams include a certain
quota of locally trained players could be accepted as being compatible
with the Treaty provisions on free movement of persons if they
do not lead to any direct discrimination based on nationality
and if possible indirect discrimination effects resulting from
them can be justified as being proportionate to a legitimate objective
pursued, such as to enhance and protect the training and development
of talented young players.
The White Paper also reiterates, however, the
existing position that these issues are to be tested on a case
by case approach.
In respect of the regulatory aspects of sport,
the assessment whether a certain sporting rule is compatible with
EU competition law can only be made on a case-by-case basis, as
recently confirmed by the European Court of Justice in its Meca-Medina
ruling. The Court provided a clarification regarding the impact
of EU law on sporting rules. It dismissed the notion of "purely
sporting rules" as irrelevant for the question of the applicability
of EU competition rules to the sport sector.
As these extracts show, the White Paper recognises
some of the issues surrounding the development of national teams,
but the Commission has failed to tackle these concerns sufficiently
to provide clarity to the issues.
While we recognise the White Paper is an early
stage in the policy process, the RFU would welcome greater certainty
and legal clarity surrounding measures to protect the standards
of the national team as proposals on sports policy in the European
Union move forward. We firmly believe that the specificity and
autonomy of sport should be adhered to, in line with the principle
of subsidiarity, such that each governing body has the right to
set its own rules and regulations, and is independent from political
interference into the governance and operation of its sport.
REPRESENTATION AND
POLICY-MAKING
APPROPRIATE TO
ALL SPORTS
The RFU is concerned that the sport of rugby
union, and indeed all sports, should be given effective representation
in European policy making processes.
We note that the process of establishing a White
Paper on Sport was heavily influenced by the Independent European
Sport Review. This review was driven by the involvement and input
of the football sector, which is not surprising given it was funded
by UEFA. Even now, to view that paper on-line requires access
to the following website address: www.independentfootballreview.com.
The RFU also notes the Commission's intention
to continue its ongoing study into the training of young sports
men and women, which will provide input into the analysis of locally
trained players, is also focused on football. The RFU hopes that
this study will not repeat the mistakes of the Independent European
Sport Review and that the Commission will review this subject
by entering into a dialogue with all of the sports who have an
interest in the policy environment that control the rules we can
set on quotas for locally trained players.
Although rugby union may not have the same reach
as football in Europe, it is important that the significance of
rugby union, as well as other sports, is recognised.
The RFU would not support the establishment
of a "European Sports Directorate" that sought to impose
policies on our governing body. Such a scenario would be particularly
damaging for rugby union given the status our sport has in many
European countries.
We urge the Commission to recognise the importance
of other sports, such as rugby union, to safeguard the specificity
of each sport as well as sport as a whole.
The RFU hopes the Select Committee will review
the White Paper in the context of the entire sporting sector,
and that it would urge the European Commission to extend and improve
the dialogue it is having with all sports.
January 2008
| 
