Football
Adriana Garcia 8y

Lawyer says FIFA young player rule an example of 'absolute inequality'

A Spanish lawyer has claimed FIFA's Article 19 rule on the transfer of underage players shows "absolute inequality," with its victims being the young footballers themselves.

This week, Real and Atletico Madrid lost UEFA appeals against bans on signing new players.

They were found guilty of breaching four articles, including Article 19 as well as parts of the regulations on the status and transfer of players.

According to Article 19, the international transfer of underage players is permitted only if certain conditions are met, including that "the player's parents move to the country in which the new club is located for reasons not linked to football."

Juan de Dios Crespo, a Spanish lawyer specialising in sports law, told Cadena Cope: "The norms are badly done, badly angled and make no sense.

"If there is a boy from Japan who is gifted at the piano and wants to move to Vienna to be taught by the best teacher, he can -- yet the same does not apply to football.

"It makes no sense. What are we protecting the minor from? A miserable life in Africa or South America?

"In fact, FIFA... have permitted players whose parents are rich to come to a country, but if they are poor it doesn't count. It's absolute inequality.

"They say they protect the underage players but, with the ban, they have done the opposite."

In rejecting the appeal from the two Madrid clubs, FIFA gave them 90 days in which to "regularise the situation" of the young players concerned.

That means the players will be prevented from representing their clubs, training with them or continuing to live at their academies.

"The only ones that are affected are the minors," Crespo said. "What protection do they have if they are not allowed to play or train? It doesn't protect them, it does the opposite.

"If FIFA continues with these [rules], the underage players from Atletico and Real Madrid will be abandoned, just as they were at Barcelona."

Barca had to release youth players when they were hit with a similar transfer ban in 2015.

Crespo worked on Barcelona's appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and said: "We came close with Barcelona [to overturning the ban] but we didn't succeed with CAS.

"It's good that there is a precedent, but Barca did not have one before. Because there is a prior sentence, that will help them when arguing their case to CAS."

Asked why only Spanish clubs had so far been punished, Crespo said: "We know that there are French, English and Italian clubs, and other Spanish clubs, under investigation.

"However, certain clubs, like Barcelona, publicised the underage players they were bringing from Africa or Korea. Other clubs didn't do that and hid that information."

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