Uefa scrap restrictions on imports

Football

European football's governing body, Uefa, last night scrapped restrictions on foreign players appearing in their club competitions, following seven hours of talks at a Heathrow hotel.

However, the Uefa president, Lennart Johansson, is confident that survivors in this season's Champions' League, Cup-Winners' Cup and Uefa Cup will stick by their voluntary agreement to retain selection limits for the rest of the current campaign.

How that will be viewed by the European Commission - two months after the Jean-Marc Bosman ruling - remains to be seen, but Scotland's David Will, announcing the rule change, said: "Uefa has no intention to do anything but act within the law."

He added that there would be discussions later this week with European players' union to find common ground for an alternative structure which would have domestic interests at heart and also satisfy the Commission.

"The executive committee recognise that the nationality rule [the so- called three-plus-two rule] can no longer be applied at the level of domestic competitions within national associations," Will said.

"In light of these two factors the committee concluded that the rule was effectively obsolete and took the decision that it be lifted with immediate effect in European club competitions.

"That being said, we have a long way to go. The transfer system has evolved over 100 years and nationality rules have been in existence for at least 30 years and it will take time to replace these.

"We have in mind a kind of concept of 'the home grown player'. Teams may consist of, say, 50 per cent players who have been home grown within the domestic association, they don't have to be the same nationality and have trained and come up from youth.

"We want to get a consensus agreement and a plan which will be within the law and, therefore, acceptable to the Commission.

England's Premier League took the lead in recognising the full ramifications of the Bosman verdict, but European commissioners were unhappy that Uefa had dragged their heels on the issue.

Johansson countered: "We belong to the European Union and we obeyed the laws. I don't care who is the winner and who is the loser only that we are pragmatic and we look for solutions for the benefit of football."

Johansson said Uefa had to work fast while Will expanded on future plans also taking into account the main Bosman ruling that players out of contract can no longer command a transfer fee.

"Somehow we have to find money for youth training," he said. "Until now it has been provided by the transfer system by funds cascading down from the biggest clubs.

"We have to find a way of replacing that. It will take weeks to work out, but we could have a percentage going into a pool which would then be paid out to smaller clubs to assist with youth training.

"Or we could have a system for players up to the age of 25 whereby the original club will receive some recompense for their outlay on training and education."

The executive committee discussed many other items including the setting up of an investigation group to look into alleged irregularities in European club football.

"It will examine accusations of corruption against associations, clubs and referees", said Johansson who added that the countries involved were the Netherlands, France, Wales and Yugoslavia.

n Jim Farry, the chief executive of the Scottish Association, last night denied that there was a refereeing crisis in Scotland, following the unexpected resignation of a top official, Jim McGilvray, who said referees had become "robots with whistles". He said the "final straw" was feeling forced to book Paul Gascoigne for celebrating after scoring in Rangers' 2-1 win against Partick on 3 February.