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.

Fergie announces that he will only allow Ryan Giggs to play in the Olympics

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It was thought that several over age players were going to be chosen from Manchester United to play football in the Olympic Games that are occurring this summer. However, Sir Alex Ferguson has just made the announcement that the only overage player from the team that can be selected to play in the Olympic Games is Ryan Giggs.

The coach, Stuart Pearce, was potentially going to pick Jonny Evans or Paul Scholes, but this has been made an impossibility because of Sir Alex’s decision. A court ruling in 2008 also made selection of football players for the Olympics rather challenging. This court decision stated that football clubs have no obligation to release their players to play in the Olympic Games and it is a decision that they will have to make by themselves.

Ryan Giggs is not officially been chosen for the tournament, this decision just decides whether you will be allowed to play in the Olympic Games. However, Mr Giggs has stated that if you were asked to play on the Olympic squad, he would accept the invitation.

Each squad in the Olympic Games are allowed to select three players who are over the normal age limit and Mr Giggs falls into this category. The question was whether the Football Association would allow Mr Giggs to play because of his age.

A spokesperson from the Football Association has refused to comment on whether they have received any communications from Manchester United about the issue. It seems as if this means that a legal battle about the issue is not going to take place, especially considering the typically accepting position of Manchester United that young players don’t get involved in Euro 2012. The original court decision was about whether to release players for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Shrewsbury Town donate shirts to African charity

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If you are in Shrewsbury town that it is not going to be uncommon to see people wearing the football kit with blue and amber. However, this football kit is now going to see a new international reach as people in Nairobi are going to be getting the football shirts from the club.

The shirts are being taken to Africa by the charity, Taking Football to Africa and Beyond. The football club of Shrewsbury town have donated over 5000 football kits in order to give to communities, orphanages, and schools in Africa.

The charity is run by Neil Hope, who was formerly involved with the RAF and he has commented, “I’ve always enjoyed doing work for charity and in a conversation with a friend one time we thought that it would be great if old football kits would be able to be sent to Africa to encourage the people there to get involved with the sport.

I think football is something that can have a universal appeal across the world and by sending kids to Africa it allows people to get involved with the sport.”

In many African countries football is a sport that is enjoyed, but there is often not enough kids to go around. This initiative is going to see a great deal more clothes sent to the country so more children than ever can get involved with playing the sport. It is also a great way to help people who are more needy and is a fantastic charitable cause.

Not only football kits are being sent from this football club, but the charity of also brought in over £15,000 worth of kit from other people. Other football clubs have been very generous in providing their equipment that is now out of date but it is all going to make a big difference.

Patrick Vieira reacts angrily about supposed Man United comments

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Patrick Vieira has recently reacted to what he thinks is a misinterpretation of comments he made about Manchester United. The Frenchman, who plays for Manchester City, recently created a great deal of controversy and upset the fans of Manchester United when he said that their attempt to bring Paul Scholes out of retirement in order to play was the club desperately trying to improve its game.

He says that the quotes have been taken out of context when they were used during an interview. They were initially made in order to be part of a campaign Vieira does as part of his charity work. They were made for a video about supporting the fight against starvation in Africa.

A statement released by Manchester City has read, “He gave the interview to the BBC and people have been misinterpreting the statement. Mr Vieira also feels that during the interview which was done with Dan Roan, from the BBC, the questions from the reporter were very misleading with regard to seeking comments from him about Manchester United.

They were especially leading in regard to Manchester United being given preferential treatment by referees at matches.” Mr Vieira maintains that is comments have been taken dramatically out of context.