Rangers can seal a 'Bosman' transfer to English League, says legal expert

[der Berliner 3,246]

An article posted today in the DR ...

 

Rangers can seal a 'Bosman' transfer to English League, says legal expert

 

RANGERS were last night told they could become the Bosman of football clubs around the world

by going to court to smash the restrictions that bar their entry to the English Leagues.

 

As chief executive Charles Green took his seat at the European Club Association annual meeting in Qatar yesterday, a leading Scots advocate was insisting the courtroom should be the Yorkshiremanâ??s next battleground in his bid to move the Ibrox club south of the border.

 

Eoghainn Maclean, an expert on competition and commercial law with the Ampersand stable of Advocates in Edinburgh, believes Rangers â?? or Celtic for that matter â?? would almost certainly win their case.

 

In fact, he reckons the mere threat of hauling the English FA through the courts, might be enough to get the clubs, who have consistently refused to consider allowing Scottish teams into their set-up, around the negotiating table.

 

Maclean believes the time is right for Rangers to take the lead on the issue because Green seems so desperate to leave Scotland â?? and any threat of UEFA sanctions for taking football into the courtroom will be limited by the clubâ??s non-participation in European competition for the next few seasons.

 

The Glasgow advocate has been studying competition law as it affects football for six years and will speak at a seminar on the subject in his home city in May.

 

He cannot believe no Scottish club has challenged the English FA in court and is convinced they would succeed if they went to the Court of Session in Edinburgh to sue in competition law.

 

He said: â??The rules of football in the English Leagues state that all clubs play their home games in England or Wales. That has the effect of preventing any Scottish clubs from ever entering their Leagues, even at the very bottom.

 

â??That is, in economic terms, a geographic splitting of the market. Football clubs are sporting entities but they are also businesses. Football is big business â?? clubs sell their services to the organisers of football tournaments, they sell tickets, broadcast and merchandising rights and they do lots of purchasing, from pies and bovril to players and coaches.

 

â??So they are economic entities as well as sporting entities. Any economic entity is subject to competition law.

 

â??Rules that require a club to play only within its territory of where its home games are, is a geographic restriction and we refer to that as a â??hardcore competition abuseâ??.

 

â??It is worse than price-fixing because if you fix the price of a car, it might be the same price everywhere but you can still compete in terms of quality, colour, delivery and after-sales.

 

â??But when you have a geographic restriction where no one from one territory can compete economically in another, then you are stopping all competition across that barrier and you canâ??t compete on any grounds.

 

â??There is a very clear case in principle that Rangers, Celtic and all of Scotlandâ??s senior clubs would have a good case. It would come down to the defence that the English Leagues would put up and I believe they would not stand up in court.

 

â??They would have to show their rules are essential to the conduct of the sport and only have an incidental economic impact on their clubs.

 

â??But the long-term effect of Rangers and Celtic being marooned here in Scotland while the English Premiership grows and grows economically â?? it is now the second biggest broadcast-grossing league in the world after the NFL â?? is that Swansea, with no comparable history to Celtic, can easily outbid them for players.

 

â??The rules they have in place to exclude clubs on the grounds of geography do not have a merely â??incidentalâ?? economic impact. The game is withering in Scotland by reason of its competitive disadvantage to the English game. Thatâ??s what happens in competition.

 

â??You get cartels, you get monopolies, and they flourish while the competition dies.â?

 

The English would also have to prove their current set-up is more competitive than it would be if they admitted Scottish clubs.

 

Again, Maclean does not believe they have a good case. He said: â??The addition of Rangers and Celtic would increase interest, competition and revenues in England. So I donâ??t see how they could argue that it would be less competitive if they were admitted.

 

â??I also think that given time, Hearts and Hibs could argue that with their fanbases and status in Scotlandâ??s capital city, they could make the same kind of contribution to the English League system as Cardiff and Swansea have over the years.â?

 

So why havenâ??t our clubs taken the courtroom route before now? Maclean said: â??Theyâ??d hoped for an agreed solution with the English authorities and that hasnâ??t happened. Also, the fear of sanctions if they took the case outside football and into court.

 

â??The law accepts you can do that but many cartel agreements in many industries threaten sanctions like this against anyone who goes outside the cartel and goes to court. The clubs fear they will become pariahs within the sport.

 

â??But the risks for Rangers are much less now and the benefits of a successful court action are much greater, given where they are at the moment. They have a much lower wage bill and of all the powerful clubs in Europe â?? in terms of a large, loyal customer base â?? and with no immediate prospect of playing in Europe, they have much less to lose than any other club.

 

â??They are in a unique position to instigate this litigation. Any result that went in their favour at the Court of Session would be enforceable and recognised throughout the EU. I do not understand why Rangers, Celtic and the other big Scottish clubs, who want access to the worldâ??s biggest football market, have not publicly threatened a competition law case before now.

 

â??Why they have not used this lever, I donâ??t know. If I were them, I would be saying we have a right to this as a matter of law, let us talk about this. If they threatened proceedings, it is my view that an agreement would be reached.â?

 

If not, and it went to court, the advocate believes a decision would be made within 18 months and even if it went to appeal, Scottish clubs could be permitted by law into England a year later.

 

He said: â??My opinion is: this is the answer.We can all see that Scottish football is withering because the cartel next door is taking up all the revenue.â?

 

And the cost of dragging the issue through the courts? Maclean said: â??Around £2million. That does not buy you much of a footballer these days but it can still buy you quite a lot of litigation.â?

 

Daily Record

[Jim1955 12]

Interesting but unlikely.

[pete 2,499]

I disagree. I think Green may be working out all his options as he must bring the biggest return for his investors. It may even open up a few cash investors willing to take a chance on a 100-1 shot.

[kuznetsov 0]

i honestly wish we would stop with this running away nonsense.

[pete 2,499]

i honestly wish we would stop with this running away nonsense.

 

Why? Are you frightened we may get a jump on your beautiful Celtic.

[der Berliner 3,246]

Why? Are you frightened we may get a jump on your beautiful Celtic.

 

More frightened of the prospect of Green giving McCoist the opportunity to "waste millions more of 'English' money"?

[pete 2,499]

More frightened of the prospect of Green giving McCoist the opportunity to "waste millions more of 'English' money"?

 

Well I must admit I may agree with him on that. But the witch hunt on Ally is reaching ridicules proportions.

I am no Ally" the manager" lover and didn't want him as manager from the beginning but things are now becoming embarrassing. We play 3rd division football every week. There is a huge gap between it and the SPL even although we don't want to admit it. If you climb Ben Nevis every week does that mean you can climb Mount Everest. Yes our players have larger wages but that is more through circumstances as is the fact we are playing in the 3rd division. The fact is we play 3rd division football and are now used to that pace. Playing an SPL team is like getting hit by a hurricane. Blame Ally for his crazy team selections but as long as we are playing in the 3rd division we will be the underdogs against SPL opponents.

[der Berliner 3,246]

Honestly, I berated* LeGuen for his selections (Buffel anyone?) as much as I did Advocaat, McLeish and Smith. Their teams still had the quality to eventually beat nigh any Scottish opponent put in front of them. It yet remains to be seen what McCoist would do if he has the players/quality at his disposal that former managers had, and by default I do not reckon that he would select the same "dubious" line-ups that we see this or saw last season. Likewise, I do not expect that Green would give any manager the freedom that we had before when it comes to players and wages being paid. And that is no doubt a good thing to know.

 

*Well, obviously, I berated the PC screen ...

[kuznetsov 0]

Why? Are you frightened we may get a jump on your beautiful Celtic.

 

what sort of pathetic accusation is that from a mod, sorry super mod?

 

quite the opposite in fact anyway, should we both go south we would never again be able to live with or compete with celtic. they have the potential to become the new man utd and we could realistically become the next leeds utd. we would get lost down there, we are not as big as we like to think, we have no influential power in the game, our club has a mediocre amateur footballing style, we dont have a scouting network, we dont have good coaches, we dont even have a good manager. celtic are built and ready to play at a higher level, we are not.

 

der berliner also made a very valid point. imagine ally getting any more money than he has already had or worse still was allowed to stay in a job? :( we would be in league 2 before you could say, "can we go back to scotland please mister!"

[Gazza_8 233]

i honestly wish we would stop with this running away nonsense.

 

Same here. It's becoming tiresome now. It'll never happen in my lifetime!

Edited February 6, 2013 by Gazza_8