By Andrew Warshaw
December 20 – European clubs have called off a potentially ground-breaking peace deal with FIFA and UEFA that would have paved the way for easing the club-versus-country war after years of acrimony between the various parties.
High-ranking members of the European Club Association (ECA), the body that represents a cross-section of clubs throughout Europe, were due to meet the governing authorities in Zurich tomorrow (Wednesday) but have pulled out of the talks.
It is understood that the FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, and his UEFA counterpart, Michel Platini, had been scheduled to meet the ECA chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, face-to-face to thrash out a deal.
But the clubs say FIFA has not done enough to persuade them that the time is right to shake hands on a pact that would have included giving the clubs greater autonomy, improving FIFA’s good governance and agreeing on a framework for the next international calendar.
“The meeting was arranged around 10 days ago unilaterally but is not taking place because there is no agreement,” one senior ECA executive told insideworldfootball.
“Blatter wanted to get the three chairmen together but the problem is there is nothing to shake hands on.
“It’s non-existent.”
Rummenigge recently described Blatter as an “eel” who ran FIFA like a “dictator” while his ECA vice-president, Sandro Rosell of Barcelona, re-iterated the clubs’ demands for a radical reduction in the number of national team dates.
In an interview published in Spain, Blatter said the clubs’ proposals were going to be discussed and that “if the requests are reasonable then we will do what we can.”
But it now appears he was speaking prematurely.
“We were pretty satisfied with UEFA’s proposals but the FIFA part is not even worth considering,” said the ECA executive.
“I cannot give details but since any agreement has to be three ways, there is no deal. We are not wasting time any longer.
FIFA have made no commitments that are acceptable to us.”
It is understood another reason the summit was cancelled was that FIFA made no significant progress at its recent Tokyo executive committee meeting on its so-called road to reform. Blatter had been due to reveal details of the infamous ISL bankruptcy case as the first crucial stage in cleaning up the game but was unable to do so for legal reasons.
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