UEFA Plan To Tackle Football’s Problems

UEFA chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson fears European football could be “taken hostage” by a criminal element if it fails to rewrite its own rule book.

Olsson is anxious to beat the con-men who are draining money from the game with the help of legislative loopholes and in the process putting players and clubs at risk. He hopes that an Independent Review of European Football will help trigger the much-needed changes.

The inquiry, chaired by Portugal’s sports minister Jose Luis Arnaut, hopes to present a dossier of concrete findings to the heads of European Union states and FIFA before the end of the year and, in doing so, tackle a number of hot topics including the ownership of clubs, match-fixing and corruption, the roles of agents and the destination of transfer money.

Olsson said: “We have no idea how much money is lost into this black hole which surrounds transfers but we are talking about millions of pounds. This is something we’d like to find out in the review.

“Transfer sums and commissions should be open and list who gets what. It’s possible to introduce.

“The French government for example are worried that some players’ agents are involved in money-laundering. So we need a better system of following transactions and comparing contracts with financial transactions.

“It’s so easy that football could be taken hostage by those who have criminal activities.”

Olsson said: “There is a need for a player to have an advisor, somebody to talk to and help him in negotiations for example. But there is an absolute need to develop the quality of the agents and their knowledge of what they are dealing with.”

With English football already at red alert over the bung scandal re-ignited by Luton Town manager Mike Newell, it was only a matter of time before the higher authorities were forced to put the whole of the football house in order.