Britain aiming to lead changes in European game
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-16 09:01

FOOTBALL CLASHES

Football is no stranger to clashes with European institutions, most famously when UEFA rules on player transfers were torn up by the European Court of Justice in its 1995 Bosman ruling.

More recently, the European Parliament has fired a warning shot across the bows of UEFA over a rule that will oblige clubs to include a number of homegrown players in their squads in European club competitions from next season.

Such UEFA quotas would probably fall foul of European Union laws on discrimination, according to a parliamentary report in Strasbourg in September.

Caborn believes that having both sides on board at the start of the review is the key to success.

"This provides a forum for them to sit down and actually discuss the issues properly - and agree something they can both sign up to," a UK government spokesman said.

"No-one's going to claim it's easy. We're going into this with our eyes open, in the sense that this is going to be a challenge to deliver.

"But it's worth trying and we think this has a better chance of success than any previous attempts because we're getting people round the same table."

The meeting, which will also be attended by the European Professional Football Leagues, is expected to be held on December 8 in Leipzig, where the 2006 World Cup draw will be held the following day, or in Brussels.