Fight Over Players Heats Up
The already heated controversy over the release of players for international games was turned up several more degrees Tuesday when Europe’s leading clubs threatened a showdown with FIFA on the matter.
Meeting in Madrid, the so-called G-14 group, made up of 18 of the continent’s wealthiest and most powerful clubs, said it would vigorously protest Brazil’s call up of 19 European-based players for a match on the road against China on Feb. 12.
“We have reached the limit,” G-14 spokesman Thomas Kurth told Reuters. “This is our last attempt to reach a friendly solution.
“National associations are abusing the regulations in order to take players to another continent just to make money, and that is not the purpose of friendly internationals.”
Under FIFA regulations, clubs have to release players for major world and continental championships, including their qualifying phases, as well as for a maximum of five friendly games per year.
European clubs balked but ultimately gave in last year when France made a trip to Asia for a friendly, and Brazil’s trip has reopened the club-versus-country debate.
“It’s totally unreasonable to expect leading players to take 20-hour flights to and from friendly internationals either side of playing important league matches,” Kurth said.
Unless FIFA addresses the situation, there is a chance that European teams will refuse to release their players in the future.
“You can all draw your own conclusions as to what we will do if FIFA [doesn’t] act,” said G-14 board member Laurent Perpere of the French club Paris St. Germain.
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said the world champions are within their rights because the China match falls on one of five dates set by FIFA for international friendlies.
“There is nothing to discuss,” Parreira told Reuters. “We have the right to field these players and that’s the end of the matter.”
Bosnich Denied
Australia national team goalkeeper Mark Bosnich, who last month was fired by his English Premier League team, Chelsea, after testing positive for cocaine, lost his appeal against the club for wrongful dismissal.
The league said in a statement that it backs Chelsea’s decision. Bosnich, 31, is suspended from soccer pending another appeal, this one against the English Football Assn., which has charged him with bringing the game into disrepute.
Del Piero Sidelined
Juventus and Italy forward Alessandro Del Piero has been sidelined for five weeks because of a thigh injury and will sit out Juventus’ European Champions League series against Manchester United and Italy’s friendly against Portugal on Feb. 12.
Del Piero, who has 12 goals in Serie A this season, was injured late in Juventus’ 1-1 tie against Atalanta on Sunday.
Quick Passes
New Ireland Coach Thomas Kerr selected former Irish international Chris Houghton as a part-time assistant.... The civil unrest in the Ivory Coast has forced the country’s soccer league to delay the start of its season by two weeks.... England national team forward Alan Smith, 22, signed a contract that will keep him at Leeds United for another 3 1/2 years. No terms were revealed.
