The EU and Sport

It was always only ever going to be a matter of time, but the EU looks like it is finally going to get its hands on sport. If the constitution (oh sorry, Lisbon treaty) goes through, then it will give the EU power over sports policy in the EU. EU policy has already caused real problems for sport. The Bosman ruling badly affected football and the Kolpak rule means that our county cricket sides can pack their sides full of South African Test players without them officially being overseas players.

The real worry is that the EU will try to apply all single market legislation to sport, despite the fact that most EU policy makers have little or no knowledge of sport whatsoever. The end result of this is that we could have cross border football leagues, meaning that Derby County could in theory play their football in the Swedish League and Manchester United could choose to up sticks and play in Madrid.

The European parliament is currently discussing the Commission "White Paper" on sport and this is worrying stuff, particularly for football fans. TV rights is the biggest issue and the success of our Premiership has been largely based on the ability of the Premier League to collectively sell the rights and then to distribute them based on merit. So the higher placed clubs receive more money than those lower down, however all receive substantial sums. Other countries have other systems, in Spain each individual club negotiates its own rights and this benefits the big clubs but significantly handicaps the small clubs, who are unable to command large fees for their rights. In Germany the rights are collectively sold and then equally divided between all clubs in the league. The Germans moan that because of this their big clubs can't match the spending power of the bigger English clubs and this is why they have not had any recent success in the Champions League or UEFA cup.

In short, things are going to change and not for the better! This is one of the hidden parts of the Constitution (oh sorry again - Treaty) and it does not augur well for sport!!!!