By Andrew Warshaw
October 13 – The head of the European Club Association, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (pictured), representing some 200 clubs across the continent has added his voice to the growing concern over Third Party Ownership but says phasing it out of the transfer market will take years and may ultimately prove nigh-on impossible.
Last week, the head of the Spanish League, Javier Tebas, explained how his country relied on TPO as an integral part of the way the clubs did business and denounced FIFA’s plans to ban it even though critics say it drives money out of the game and into the hands on non-footballing investors.
FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke has already made it clear that a transitional period will be needed before any global ban can be implemented since TPO has long been the model of South American clubs as well as some in Europe, notably Portugal and Spain.
ECA chairman Rummenigge says FIFA may never be able to totally solve the problem.
“Some of our own member clubs in Europe have difficulties …and all the clubs using TPO in the southern part of Europe – like Portugal and Greece – will need this transitional phase to find solutions,” he said.
“This will need years not months and we have to try to help them. But the whole of South America is owned by TPO. Every single player in South America is owned by a third party so I don’t know how FIFA will deal with this problem.”
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