Who rules Planet Football

Cracks are appearing in the edifice of European soccer as the most powerful clubs refuse to play ball with the governing bodies

Jul 9th 2004 | from Intelligent Life

Lovers of European football will remember the dashing Frenchman, Michel Platini. The creative spur of Juventus and France in the mid-1980s was twice voted world soccer player of the year. Today, his talents are more conservatively channelled as an administrator with soccer’s global and European governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA. But he has lost none of his trademark panache. As a member on FIFA’s executive committee, Mr Platini has become an outspoken critic of European club football, which, he believes, is awash with self-interest and financial irresponsibility.
On extravagant club spending and transfer dealings, Mr Platini says: “If you or I buy a Ferrari we can’t pay for, we go to jail. Yet there are teams that not only take Ferraris they can’t pay for, but also get the prettiest girls—it’s not fair.” And on the glut of foreign imports at clubs Europe-wide, he asks: “Is it okay that some sides don’t even field two players from their own country? Is it okay that there are a dozen Africans playing for Beveren in Belgium? Why do they still play in Belgium?”
Like many inside and outside the game, Mr Platini hankers for a return to the days when a team of plucky Belgians could beat Europe’s big city clubs or when governing bodies, not executives from the game’s wealthiest clubs, called the shots.

Related topics

• Europe
• Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)
• FIFA
• Football (soccer)
• Sport

But the Platini tendency is in decline. While 2004 marked centenary and jubilee celebrations for FIFA and UEFA respectively, the next few years will see a further transfer of power from the game’s administrators to the mega-clubs. Two FIFA-run tournaments that Europe’s wealthiest clubs want scrapped take place in 2005: in the summer, the Confederations Cup in Germany; and, in the winter, the Club World Championship in Japan.
Both events highlight the fault lines developing at the top end of the game. The inaptly named “G-14”, a self-selecting pressure group of Europe’s 18 most powerful clubs (see table), has said that 2005 could be the last time that they “lend” their highly paid players to the unloved Confederations Cup. Indeed, such is the spirit of resistance to FIFA’s control that G-14 members have refused en bloc to take part in the Club World Championship, a club invitational tournament.

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