Belgian court could put FAI in no-win situation

IRISH MEP Brian Crowley has warned that a football compensation case currently before the Belgian courts could have serious financial implications for the FAI.

A leading Belgian club Charleroi, backed by 18 of Europe’s wealthiest clubs, is seeking compensation after one of its players, Abdelmajid Oulmers, was injured while on international duty with Burkino Faso in November 2004, and missed the rest of the season.

That incident has given rise to a test case in which clubs like Real Madrid and Man United are demanding that, in future, the national associations pay players’ club wages while they are on international duty. And if a player is injured while playing for his country, they want the association to pay his wages for the duration of the time he is out of action for his club.

Said Brian Crowley: “Paying club wages for 22 players while on international duty will mean enormous costs. But paying the wages of a club player while injured on international duty could be even more detrimental financially. A player injured on international duty could be injured for a year or more, and this could mean a wage bill of millions of euro.”

Mr Crowley, who believes football’s governing body FIFA are right to vigorously defend the case, argues that the outcome could have serious consequences for the FAI and other smaller football associations in Europe.

“Imagine the wage bill the FAI would have to honour if Ireland qualified for the European Championship finals or even the World Cup,” he said yesterday. “Basically the FAI would have to pay club wages for a period of up to four weeks.

“The FAI currently supports Irish soccer clubs to the tune of €10 million annually. The Association’s ability to continue this support will be seriously curtailed if the Belgian courts rule in favour of Charleroi Football Club.”

A measure of the seriousness with which the FAI view the situation, is that a delegation headed by Chief Executive John Delaney was in the European Parliament yesterday for a series of meetings about the matter with officials from the European Commission and members of the European Parliament.

The FAI also discussed the case with the EU Commissioner For The Internal Market, Charlie McCreevy yesterday.

The first battle in the court case took place on Monday, with the presiding judge declaring that he will take between 30 and 90 days to deliver a final judgement.