A ‘Nine Man’ Rule Which Maybe Influencing Transfer Policy?

I have written repeatedly in the past about transfer fees, first commenting last summer on how ridiculous it was that so many people were comparing the transfer fees of James Milner to Manchester City and Mesut Ozil to Real Madrid when there were a number of extenuating circumstances. In January we got the same response of shock, horror and outrage at the fee for the transfer of Darren Bent from Sunderland to Aston Villa. Yet again people were all too keen to point out other transfer fees as some sort of proof that he was overpriced.

As I said at the time, every transfer is unique – so many factors come into play that decide what that fee is, that the actual skill of the player becomes the tip of the iceberg. And what is a market value for a player? Well the fact is there isn’t one. There’s no manual available, no graphs to check to see what a player is worth, no complex formula – it is a figure that cannot be determined – what is the worth of a human being to a football club? Almost impossible to say. And there are other costs as well of course – wages, signing on fees, payments to agents and so on. The transfer fee is just the beginning, and it often includes add-ons that will only be paid if the player is successful anyway, plus sell-on clauses, image rights, and so much more.

The factors include:
Do the selling club need to sell?
Do the selling club want to sell?
Does the player want to leave?
How good is the player?
In what position does the player play?
What nationality is the player?
How long does he have left on his contract?
Are there a number of clubs after him?
Age

And that’s just some of the reasons. There are more– injury history, attitude, lifestyle – the player might have a release clause – as I said, every deal is unique.

But having also written recently about the “British premium” as Jordan Henderson and Phil Jones made big-money moves to Liverpool and Manchester United respectively, where I argued it is perhaps more of a premium on players with Premiership experience, not just British players, a new edict is looming on the horizon that perhaps explains further the purchases made by United and Liverpool, and which will heavily shape future transfer policies for clubs.

The move towards such premiums started with the planned introduction of the “6+5” rule, then with the 25 man squad rule. The FIFA Congress, at its meeting in 2008, decided to fully support the objectives of “6+5”, the rule stating that at the beginning of each match, each club must field at least six players eligible to play for the national team of the country of the club. There was no restriction however on the number of non-eligible players under contract with the club, nor on substitutes to avoid non-sportive constraints on the coaches, so potentially a match could end with only 3 home grown players on the pitch

The rule was on numerous occasions described as illegal by the European Union and was rejected by the European Parliament on 9 May 2008, and last year, was finally abandoned by FIFA, who said it would look at “other eligibility” options.

Continue Reading on Page 2 . . .