By Andrew Warshaw
March 6 – Third Party Ownership, the dubious process by which companies or individuals own the economic rights of players and take a portion of international transfer fees, may have its roots in South America but is also spreading its tentacles into a “growing” number of European countries according to the European Club Association which represents the interests of more than 200 clubs across the Continent.
The dangers of TPO in terms of taking money out of the game were discussed at some length last week at a media briefing held by UEFA when the organisation’s general secretary Gianni Infantino stressed the immorality of a third party owning the economic rights to another human being – then trading that asset.
Infantino revealed that UEFA had asked FIFA to clamp down more forcefully on the practise but warned that if needs be, UEFA would take unilateral action in banning TPO, already outlawed in some European countries such as England and France.
“Third party ownership threatens integrity of competitions – if the same individual or company owns or controls various players at different clubs, this could influence results,” said Infantino.
“Nor is third-party ownership compliant with Financial Fair Play. Clubs could rely on speculative investments from a third party to acquire players they cannot afford.”
Europe’s clubs may not agree with UEFA on everything but there seems to be a consensus when it comes to TPO, at least at an ethical level if not how fast it should be outlawed.
“Nobody really knows enough about it because it is not very transparent,” ECA general secretary Michele Centenaro told reporters after the ECA’s annual assembly in Barcelona this week.
“We’ve discovered it is developing a lot. It is still limited in Europe but it’s growing. In South America it’s a fact: something like 90% of players coming from South America are involved in some kind of TPO. But it also concerns certain European countries including Spain, Portugal and the Balkan region.”
Two ECA board members, Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis and Real Madrid vice-president Pedro Lopez, expressed their doubts, however, over the viability of an outright European ban on TPO for fear of leaving some clubs struggling financially.
“I am in favour of phasing this out gradually but we can’t do it straight away, we can’t throw clubs under the bus,” Gazidis was quoted as saying. While Lopez said it was unrealistic to think European clubs could agree on a unified stance. “Time will tell,” he said, adding that it would difficult to wipe out TPO altogether.
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