27 Nov 2008Football authorities step up war of words

Football Leagues/ Association and Governance

The war of words between the governing bodies of French and English football has continued in the build-up to a meeting between the European game's decision makers in Biarritz later this week, the Telegraph reports.

French president Nicholas Sarkozy is keen to use his influence as EU president to push through reforms designed to increase the regulation of sports in general and football in particular.

However, the Premier League's chief executive Richard Scudamore has called for less interference from governing authorities rather than more, and believes the proposal to create a European equivalent of the French football regulator DNCG is nothing less than "ridiculous".

Frederic Thiriez, the president of the Ligue de Football Professionnel, has responded with a slight of his own by insisting that the Premier League's financial clout makes it an enemy of sporting fair play, particularly when English sides come across European competition in the Champions League.

"Clubs that participate in the same competition must be subject to the same constraints," he said, the newspaper reports.

"To counter financial doping, we propose financial fair play. It's a question of sporting justice… if we continue with football at two speeds, which sees three English clubs in the semi-finals each season, the competition will lose its interest."

Of course, Mr Thiriez has conveniently forgotten that the French league could also be described as unequal, as the same team has won Le Championnat in each of the last seven seasons.

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