Repeated incident of misconduct could see players being sacked

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Footballers risk having their contracts terminated if they are guilty of serious or persistent misconduct. This is according to the behaviour clause in a footballer’s employment contract which ties players to their clubs. The problem is that this is open to wide interpretation and the football authorities and the players’ union are looking at ways of clarifying it.

The PFA chief executive, Gordon Taylor, was speaking yesterday to the culture, media and sport select committee enquiry, ‘Racism in Football’. He said that the contract is too generalised with regards to behaviour and that it should state specifically what an offence of gross misconduct is, for example racist abuse. There was support for this from David Bernstein, the FA Chairman who said it was an ‘interesting area’.

He said that players are very well protected by their contracts and, in his opinion, sometimes over-protected. He said that clubs and players need to clarify what constitutes a breach of contract and spoke of one incident pending where they were waiting to see what the club does. It was generally agreed that it was not a good situation if a club were afraid of million pound lawsuits if they terminated a players’ contract.

John Terry, the former England captain, is currently facing racism charges for allegedly racially abusing Anton Ferdinand of Queens Park Rangers. The committee was told that his trial date had been put back until after the European Championships this summer. David Bernstein made it clear that he thought the decision to strip Terry of the captaincy was absolutely right.

It was a very controversial decision and led to the resignation of the England manager at the time, Fabio Capello. Both the PFA and the FA are in agreement that changes in the way a contract is worded must be made and it is just a question of what form those changes will take.

 

Rangers lose their appeal at the SFA tribunal

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Glasgow Rangers lost their appeal at the Scottish Football Association’s appeals tribunal when their claim that they were being unduly punished for Craig Whyte’s financial misdemeanours was rejected. Whyte withheld £13 million of tax and VAT which should have gone to the taxman. The club was also fined £160,000 for gross misconduct and bringing the game into disrepute.

The tribunal, which was headed by Lord Carloway, said in their summing up that it was right for the original disciplinary tribunal to ban the registration of new players over the age of 18 for 12 months. They also said that it was right that offence was attributable to the club as a member of the Scottish Football Association and that the tribunal was right to raise the maximum fine of £100,000 to £160,000 in this case as it was so serious.

It actually could have been much worse for Rangers. They could have been expelled from the Scottish game or had their membership of the SFA suspended either of which would have had dire consequences for the club. Rangers complained about the effects of the restriction on transfers but the tribunal ruled that this was correct as the club had brought the game into disrepute. The club can still extend contracts for existing players.

The ruling will throw doubts on the future of the consortium who are trying to get a creditors’ agreement next month allowing the club to come out of administration, hopefully in time for the start of next season. The consortium is headed by Charles Green, the former chief executive of Sheffield United and apparently consists of a further 20 investors who remain unidentified.

Italian manager assaults his own player during match

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An Italian football match last night saw incredible scenes unfold when the manager of one of the teams playing physically assaulted one of his players. The assault took place after the manager took the player off in order to substitute him and the event was captured on television.

The substitution came at half time when the manager Delio Rossi substituted Adem Ljajic. The player was obviously such a great fan of the decision and he proceeded to sarcastically clap the decision by his manager. Once that he was off, the manager pointed his finger at him and clearly began to verbally reprimand him.

However, this did not seem to be enough for the manager because after the player sat down in the dugout, the manager jumped into it and slapped him in the face. It then appeared as if he wa about to punch him but he was dragged away by other people in the dugout before anything could happen.

The president of the team made the instant decision to sack the manager and has commented, “I’m sad that I have to make this decision, it is clear that months of stress had been building up for the manager and they all came out of one moment. He has never acted in this way before and I’m just sad that I have to make the decision to fire him.

“That said, it is clear that this sort of action cannot go unpunished as there was no provocation strong enough to cause this kind of response.” The player is also going to face reprimand for his actions but they are unlikely to be as severe as those that have been facing the manager. It is currently unclear who will be taking over the management role at the club in the immediate future.

Arsene Wenger calls for a change to football discipline

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Arsene Wenger, the manager of the Arsenal football team, has recently spoken out against the current disciplinary system in the football world and says that he would like to see an ethics committee installed which will have the ability to over rule the decisions of referees.

The current rules from the football Association state that it is not possible for a player to be punished in retrospect if no officials in the match saw the incident where the rules were broken. The complaint has come about after a match last month where a player was injured by another but the game continued because no official saw the problem.

This was a decision that was met with a great deal of criticism and the whole situation has been made much worse as much smaller infractions have been punished much more heavily, suggesting that there could be bias among some referees.

Arsene Wenger has said that the system just lacks the common sense of systems in other sports and he would like to see it overhauled in the immediate future. He has commented, “The current system basically means that if it’s out of sight for a referee then its out of mind.

A player could openly punch another player and if no official saw it, then it will go unpunished, no matter what is revealed through video footage later on. For anyone who loves the game of football they should support a reform of these rules as they are clearly ridiculous and need to be changed.”

Mr Wenger added, “There are so many things in football to work well but this is an area where there is so much friction it can be very frustrating for fans as well as players. Of course, the decision of a referee should be respected, but there should be a higher authority.”

Wage capping could protect clubs from financial hardship

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Something of a doomsday scenario has come over the Football League as clubs are struggling with the rules that limit the amount of turnover that can be spent on the wages of players. Championship clubs have also recently just voted to say that they would prefer to have the same financial rules that are seen in Leagues one and two.

The sort of rules that would be implemented in the championship would mean that it is less difficult for the clubs to fall into significant amounts of debt, and risk collapsing.

The chairman of the football league is Greg Clarke and he has commented, “These new regulations are going to create more financially sustainable football clubs. They are going to lay a foundation for creating a more responsible sport where clubs are less able to rack up large debts very quickly.”

The chairman has also said that the rules are going to be brought into effect next season and any clubs that are not being in compliance with the rules are going to face transfer embargoes as well as significant fines. He has also said however that these fines will not start being handed out until the season after that in order to give clubs an opportunity to get used to the new rules and restrictions.

A lawyer who specialises in sports at the law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse, Daniel Geey has commented, “These sort of regulations are going to help ensure the football clubs are able to break even and that they do not take on a large amount of debt.

Fortunately, there is some leeway and it means that these rules will not be too restrictive on clubs, just enough to protect them from themselves. It is a good idea for them to have implemented the grace period before they started implanting finds in the 2014 season.”

Sanctions are also going to be put onto clubs that are not able to break even. Over the next five years these are going to be gradually increased so that clubs are able to improve their performance and not take unnecessary risks.