By Andrew Warshaw
May 7 – For the second time in a few weeks, the Belgian lawyer who helped change the face of European football has warned that UEFA’s Financial Fair Play system may not stand up in court if challenged.
But this time, Jean-Louis Dupont, who helped win the landmark Bosman case in the mid-1990s, has lodged a complaint with the European Commission.
Financial Fair Play, designed to ensure clubs break even over a rolling three-year period, comes fully into effect next season but Dupont claims that the rules breach European competition law. “A club owner is prohibited from overspending even if such overspending aims at growing the club,” he charges.
In December 1995, journeyman Belgian midfielder Jean-Marc Bosman, 31 at the time, successfully challenged football’s transfer rules at the European Court on the basis of restraint of trade. The ruling suddenly allowed players to move clubs without a transfer fee at the end of their contracts.
Dupont was not only part of the legal team acting for Bosman but later also won a case forcing the authorities to compensate clubs for players injured on international duty.
He is now representing a Belgian players’ agent, Daniel Striani, and is trying to stop FFP from being introduced.
Last year, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia backed UEFA’s initiative saying it was imperative “for clubs to have a solid financial foundation”. Although UEFA always anticipated legal challenges, Dupont’s success in this field could potentially seriously undermine the process.
UEFA re-iterated in a statement however that financial fair play is “fully in line with EU law” and that it was “confident that the European Commission will reject this complaint”.
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