FA introduces insurance scheme

by

The Football Association has been forced to set up an insurance scheme owing to the culture of players being sued over bad tackles. From next season all 11-a-side teams will have to pay up to £82 a year in cover as part of the National Game Insurance Scheme.

There have been cases where players have tried to sue opponents over broken bones owing to rash challenges on the field. From the next season, 15 player squads of Saturday and Sunday league teams will have to pay £26 for the basic package and £82 for the most comprehensive one.

Mike Dowling, secretary of the Birmingham Amateur Football Association feels, it is not so much about the money but more about the cumbersome processes. Personal accident cover which is mandatory may not be as expensive as your kit but is in no way hassle-free.

Most basic insurance which costs a player £2 a season also needs doctor’s certificates and letter. Yet the benefits may be a paltry £100 a week if you break a log and are off work. In case you have children and pay a mortgage to pay off, this amount is pretty negligible for all the hassle undertaken.

He admitted there was a compensation culture problem. In the six seasons that he had been secretary of the Birmingham AFA, there had been three cases of players trying to take litigation action against opposing players or the opposing team. Even a referee can be cited. Usually players try to get most out of a no win, no fee solicitors situation.

NGIS is being provided by the FA’s appointed broker Bluefin Sport. Mike Brown, secretary of the Amateur Football Alliance, says that FA have formed a deal for clubs which is cost effective and fits football. Former Chelsea and England star Graeme Le Saux appears in a two-minute video promoting the plan.

People leaving homes so Anfield can be expanded

by

In the area around the Anfield stadium in Liverpool many residents are choosing to pack and move away from their homes so that the football club can tear down the family homes and make their Main Stand larger. Over the last six months the club has decided to scrap plans to build a new stadium and instead is now settling for an expansion. The Liverpool city council has been working hard to purchase the homes with the added incentive of legal compulsory purchase.

Most people that are moving are bitter and angry since the area has been steadily declining for the past few years. They are especially angry that the club purchased many homes and left them open for decades leading to the decline of the area.

Some residents are still refusing to be uprooted and are angry that the council offered them a low price for their home owners. These residents want to be paid enough to purchase a new home and receive compensation for the many years of living in the neighbourhood that has suffered from the football club’s decisions.

They are even angrier about the fact that they are being forcibly told they have to move so that the new owner of Liverpool, Fenway Sports Group, can make money. A man who lives on Lothair Road which sits against the Main Stand stated that the house next to him has been empty for years and he is not giving up his home until they forcibly remove him from the property.

The residents are bitter because the club purchased homes decades ago along Lothair Road without telling the community what they intend to do. This has led to the overwhelming idea that Liverpool purchased the homes to purposely drive down the market in the area.

UEFA financial regulations to be challenged in court

by

UEFA’s financial fair regulations are going to be challenged in the courts of Europe due to a players agent being upset that the rules are restricting the total amount of money that a player can earn.

The Belgium agent, Daniel Striani, has placed a formal complaint with the EC stating that the rules are unfair since they require clubs in the EC from 2011 forward to financially more forward. Lawyer Jean Louis-Dupont will represent Striani. Louis-Dupont successfully challenged contract rules in 1995 for Jean-Marc Bosman and won allowing Belgium players from that point forward to move without any costs at the completion of their contracts.

This time around Dupont believes that he will once again beat the rules outlined by UEFA even if they are argued additionally by the European Commission. He stated that the regulations that are supposed to help prevent financial losses from occurring at clubs will have many adverse consequences that are not competitive.

The very first argument he plans to make is that by not allowing a club to run at a loss they will not be able to make any proper investments. The second argument is that it will give an unfair advantage of rich clubs and will secure their power in the league making it hard for any other team to rise up as Manchester City has done in the past.

In addition, he plans to argue that the FFP simply wants to reduce wages and transfer fees which is obviously anti-competitive and not fair to the players because it will end up reducing the amount of transfers that take place on a regular basis as well as the number of players that actually end up on a contract with different clubs. Over time this will also lead to salaries of players decreasing.

Lower division clubs ask FA for fairer payouts

by

Football League clubs are asking the FA to increase the amount of money that it hands out to other divisions. This past Tuesday it was announced that sides from the top flight would be paid as much as £60m over the next four years starting at the 2014 season. However, clubs are asking that the sides do not receive any additional funds.

The 72 Football League clubs met on Wednesday to talk about how payments should be distributed over the next three years. The clubs did not however reach an agreement about how payments should be disbursed and will meet again in May to talk about the matter in more depth.

The Premier League sold the broadcast rights for the next three years to BT and Sky for £3bn which is a very large increase over the past £1.25bn. Overseas rights to air the matches will put that total up to about £5bn. Out of that, parachute payments; which are money that is given to the different sides from top flight and cash that was given to clubs that did not receive parachute money consists about 15% of that total deal.

The Press Association Sport stated that clubs that are a part of the Championship that do not already get parachute payments will given £2.3m each which is more than they would get if they made their own TV deal.

League One Clubs will be given £360,000 and League Two will be given £240,000 which is a 5% to 6% increase. Parachute payments were originally created to help clubs that lost a large amount of revenue when they dropped out of the top division of England.

Even though there has been a lot of debate about solidarity payments and parachute payments the Premier League continues to insist that it does not prevent clubs from eventually being promoted into the Premier League.

Ashley Young forced out of rest of season with injury

by

Ashley Young will not be playing for the last five Premier League games of the Manchester United season as an ankle injury has taken the Winger out of the game. Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed this week that Young will have to sit out the rest of the Premier League campaign in order to recuperate.

Young suffered an ankle injury during the Manchester City derby defeat just a fortnight ago. When the injury first occurred Ferguson stated that the winger would have to sit out for a fortnight but further tests have showed that the damage is actually a lot more extensive and will take longer to recover from.

It is not yet known yet if Young will be able to recover before the post season friendlies start between England and Brazil and the Republic of Ireland. However, at the time that these matches occur Young will have had already sat out two months and may be feeling up to playing again.

Ferguson stated that this is a very bad blow to the team as they have already been dealt quite a few blows due to the absence of two significant players. He went on to explain that they thought that Young would be back in just a few weeks but after a meeting with a specialist this past Wednesday in London they found out that the prognosis is not so pleasant.

Instead, Manchester United will have to make do without him for remaining games of their season. The outlook is not great for the team that has lost several of its key players due to injuries over eth long football season that has not been going in their favour.