January 27 – Doyen Sports, one of the main companies cited as practising Third Party Ownership (TPO), which is banned by FIFA and UEFA, has attempted to justify its conduct by rejecting that it in any way owns players and insisting it uses an alternative model of TPI (third party investment) that ensures financial transparency.
Nélio Lucas (pictured), CEO of Doyen Sports, was one of the panelists during a debate on Tuesday in Brussels hosted by the ‘Sports Intergroup’ of the European Parliament.
Other panelists included representatives from UEFA, FIFA, the European Professional Football Leagues, European Clubs Association and FIFPro, as well as Javier Tebas, President of the Spanish League who is pro-TPO.
Lucas defended his company’s collaboration with clubs and players. “The very idea of investors owning another human being is ludicrous, we abolished that idea hundreds of years ago. TPO must be exterminated from the game outright,” he said.
Doyen Sports’ TPI model was a “viable alternative source of finance much needed by the large majority of football clubs in Europe” with up to 80 % having no liquidity to face the growing pressures of competition and the dominance of an oligarchy of rich teams.
Doyen has long argued that it has no say in determining how its clubs operate in the transfer market and that it has no hold on players’ economic rights. According to a statement released by the company, Lucas told Tuesday’s hearing: “Clubs need to see their freedom to choose sources of finance and investment preserved, and this cannot be left to private organisations with questionable ethical reputations and no democratic legitimacy such as FIFA.”
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