Apologies, haven't read every page in this thread. But why is that though? Surely its a valid question? Wasnt the reason the old derry were allowed in the league in the first place was they had to apply to uefa (or fifa or whoever it was) stating special circumstances as they were outside the republic? Surely it's not as easy for any team in europe to join a league in a foreign country and if nobody objects, its ok? (rather than a club going to uefa or fifa stating why they should be allowed in a foreign league,etc and then await for approval from eufa/fifa and associations involved?)
Just interested in how this works! Just seems a bit too easy to join a foreign league- without having to apply to uefa - and if nobody objects, its all ok!! Amazing, if thats how easy it is all across europe (not just in this case!!)
Last edited by Cosmo; 16/01/2010 at 12:54 PM.
DAN CONNOR HATES CITY, HE HATES LANGERS
The law has changed since City joined the LOI thoiugh.
The Maastricht Treaty, and following European laws on free competition and restraint of trade, now mean that it literally is as easy as a team from one European Union jurisdiction joining the league structures of another. All that is needed for this to happen is for the recipient league's members to accept them.
Hence why the idea of The Old Firm joining the English structure just won't go away, and the proposal of creating two Premier Divisions in order to get the support of clubs to vote for it to happen.
So in summary - City doesn't need any UEFA or FIFA dispensation, unlike in 1985.
Err - I think you'll find that I've detailed the correct answer to this at varying lengths more than a dozen times on here over the last few years - complete with references to the High Court case in England that clarified the European legal precedent around it all in 1994, and the fact that it was explained directly to me by a former FIFA governing committee member.
So some do indeed know about the issue
And we're off again......
I'd be very interested if you could produce any objective evidence to support your assertion that "All that is needed for this to happen is for the recipient league's members to accept them". Restraint of trade laws are very difficult to apply to a sporting context. It would be possible to argue that all sorts of routine aspects of football are restraints of trade. I really don't think it's as simple as you make out.
The Old Firm situation is completey different. From a legal perspective, it's 2 UK clubs attempting to gain entry to a different league based in the UK. The new DCFC is a club based in the UK trying to gain entry to a league based in a different EU Member State - as such a completely different proposition.
Having said that, the media coverage of the Old Firm proposal indicates that the national associations on both sides of the border would need to agree. It was also widely reported that UEFA said they wouldn't object, but that doesn't mean they don't need to give approval. See this as an example: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...em/8006934.stm
And this is exactly why the discussion was stopped in the first place - round and around and around.
Que sera sera. Can we leave it there please?
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