Wenger sees 'the end of transfer fees' (Goonersweb)

Title: Wenger sees 'the end of transfer fees'
Description: Arsene's view on contracts

Synergetic - June 29, 2008 12:55 AM (GMT)

QUOTE

Three decades ago, when Arsène Wenger was earnestly failing to establish himself as a professional footballer of note at Strasbourg, the financial dominion of clubs went without challenge. No player left a team without the express permission of his employers. A club owned a footballer's registration until choosing to relinquish it for whatever price they deemed fit. When neither a new contract nor a transfer could be agreed, clubs could lawfully prevent their employees playing for any other club without paying him another centime.

So effectively did football control the salaries of its performers that the €20m (£15.7m) a season Real Madrid are currently enticing Cristiano Ronaldo with would cover the wages of an entire league season of the Wenger era. 'Inflationary' is one term the Arsenal manager uses to describe the transfer system that lends Ronaldo the confidence to demand his exit from Manchester United one season into a five-year contract. 'The wild west' is another he employs to capture the actions of players, agents and predator chairmen in football's new order. Allow its logic to run the full course, he argues, and transfer fees may completely cease to exist.

Though the market has yet to reach the stage where Ronaldo is free to march off to Madrid without compensation for United, the combination of external temptation and personal desire bears parallel to Nicolas Anelka's move from Arsenal to the Bernabéu nine summers ago.

'Contract-wise, the club is always in a weaker position,' said Wenger of the Ronaldo situation at a Castrol-backed Euro 2008 event. 'Why? Because clubs only have the security of a player now for three years. And that's why, when a player is in his second year, it's difficult. You are in a weak situation as a club.

'OK, you can think, "I can leave this guy here if he sulks and play him in the reserves." But it doesn't work. It's a good solution in theory, but on a daily basis it's impossible. That's why, in the end, I said I will only sell Anelka if he says to me, "I want to leave". What can you do with a player who doesn't want to stay?'

The legal framework gradually structured around football since Jean-Marc Bosman successfully challenged restrictions on freedom of movement in 1995 means that, in many circumstances, a club can do nothing. In the wake of the European Court of Justice ruling, Fifa drafted a set of internationally binding regulations determining the maximum length of contracts, circumstances under which a player could terminate them and compensation levels for transfers.

Introduced in 2003 and restated two years later, Fifa's 'Regulations for the Status of and Transfer of Players' is a 38-page document of intentionally convoluted legalese. While the compromise deal prevented more hawkish European Union bureaucrats from abolishing transfer fees in their entirety and allowed clubs to continue signing footballers to multi-season contracts, the shades of grey of several central provisions have gradually become apparent to those intent on negotiating increasingly grand remuneration.

Critically, the Fifa regulations allowed a player who agreed his contract when under the age of 28 to terminate it after three seasons 'without just cause' as long as he informs his club of his intention to do so and pays appropriate compensation. Though the level of such damages went unspecified, the test case that followed Andy Webster's decision to use the rule to leave Hearts for Wigan in 2006 determined that sum as the outstanding value of a player's contract (in the Scotland defender's case, £150,000).

The result, according to Wenger, is that a modern footballer's contract effectively secures a player's services for just two seasons, regardless of the length formally agreed in the paperwork. 'After two years you have to renegotiate your contract because after three years the player can move out,' Wenger says. 'You give longer contracts because it offers a little bit of protection for the player to have to pay compensation if he moves after three years - if you give a player a five-year contract and he moves after three, he has to pay two years' [wages].

'But, after two years, you have to re-negotiate with the player because he can move the next season; you have no choice. For me, this measure is inflationary. Why? Because after two years you have to sit down with the player, whether he has played well or not, or you will lose him. You can never get him to sign an extension to his contract for less - that means you will always have to increase his salary. They have created a situation where inflation goes through the roof.'

If that places in perspective Arsenal's claim that they tied Cesc Fábregas to a revised eight-season deal in 2006 (as five years is the Fifa-mandated maximum contract length, the agreement involved a non-binding 'option' to extend), the regulations for older players offer further grounds for concern. Individuals agreeing contracts after the age of 28 can terminate still earlier, at the end of their second season. As Wenger points out, the rule is unlikely to survive a legal challenge by a younger player seeking a second-season escape.

'In the past, you signed and you were there for life,' he says. 'Then you have seen Bosman coming in, then Webster. It looks like the balance goes always towards the player. And if you go to appeal, there is no protection any more. At the moment, after 28 you need only two years. I see the next thing coming is people saying, "Why is it 28 and not 27? That's age discrimination. Why do we have to wait two years after 28 and three years before?"

'If it goes down to two as well, you go from one extreme to the other. It could mean the disappearance of transfer fees.'

Arsenal are already suffering. This season past, Mathieu Flamini ran down his contract before accepting the richest deal offered to join AC Milan. Alexander Hleb's future is unsure after he threatened to terminate without just cause. And Emmanuel Adebayor's future will be determined by the club's response to Milan's offer to multiply his salary. On Friday Adebayor said: 'I am footballer, I have a three-year contract at Arsenal but as you know, a lot of clubs are interested in me. Arsène Wenger is like a father to me... but if he sells me for €50m, everyone is getting the benefits.'

If that should amuse the Italian, Spanish and French clubs who have suffered as Arsenal have diligently exploited the other end of transfer regulations to relocate their academy elite to north London, there is further encouragement for them in Wenger's analysis of the Premier League's status in the world game. An English club is yet to employ a World Footballer of the Year, never mind one in his prime. Just as Ronaldinho appears a probable capture, this year's champion-in-waiting is plotting his departure.

'You would want Ronaldo to stay and Kaká to come to England,' Wenger says. 'It looks for me that the financial dominance of England in the last three or four years has been rebalanced. Italy was knocked down and has recovered. Spain has moved up. Financially it will be more difficult to dominate as we have done in the last few years. Football dominance is linked with economic dominance. You have to give more money to the player who has played in Italy or he doesn't move.

'I don't want Ronaldo to leave, not at all. I'm for stability.'

Unfortunately, in the era of the €100m footballer, what clubs say no longer necessarily goes.

Rkane - June 29, 2008 01:05 AM (GMT)

He also said 5 or so years ago that international football would be viewed as worthless and he has got that wrong.

I admire and respect the Arsenal manager but he also is capable of getting things wrong and this is one of those occasions I feel.

Synergetic - June 29, 2008 01:16 AM (GMT)

I don't think Wenger actually thinks there won't be any need for transfer fees. The headline is just trying to put an extreme spin on what he said. He did say: 'If it goes down to two as well, you go from one extreme to the other. It could mean the disappearance of transfer fees.' .... just sounds like he's just voicing his concerns about the general trend of players getting more and more power.

The main issue that Wenger has is with the "Webster ruling":

QUOTE (Wiki - Article 17)

Article 17 of FIFA's Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players is entitled "Consequences of Terminating a Contract Without Just Cause", and is the fifth article of Chapter IV, "Maintenance of Contractual Stability between Professionals and Clubs". It outlines the provisions which apply if a contract is terminated without just cause, and the requirement for the party in breach to pay compensation. Specifically, it states that any player who signed a contract before the age of 28 can buy himself out of the contract three years after the deal was signed. The window is shortened to two years if he is 28 or older. Article 17 was introduced in December 2004, with effect from 1 July 2005.

I'd heard this from someone else, too...that this has been going for 3 years. In these 3 years, how many cases have we had where a player has actually bought out his contract and moved clubs? It's a highly complicated procedure which players and agents don't want to get involved in.

The Flamini exit was nothing to do with this. Although I agree with Wenger in his general view that the power has shifted to the players, I also get the feeling he is fishing for a bit of sympathy.

Jens' Face - June 29, 2008 02:42 AM (GMT)

Syn, I think it's a little more complicated than you say, for two reasons.

1. A lot of the power of the Webster provision lies in the player being able to threaten to use it. Perhaps it would be complicated for the player, perhaps he wouldn't win the appeal. But it introduces a serious uncertainty for the club that holds his contract. This is the thrust of AW's concern:

QUOTE

But, after two years, you have to re-negotiate with the player because he can move the next season; you have no choice. For me, this measure is inflationary. Why? Because after two years you have to sit down with the player, whether he has played well or not, or you will lose him. You can never get him to sign an extension to his contract for less - that means you will always have to increase his salary.

Obviously, that uncertainty strengthens the player's hand and, most crucially imo, the hand of the other clubs, who are tapping him up.

2. The football world is still feeling out the Webster ruling. It's easy to imagine that players and their will become more comfortable with the idea of using it, and that it will become simply easier to use as time passes. Bosman took that sort of path.

While it certainly makes things harder for the club that holds the contract, and while that will bother fans of the club, I kind of feel like we just have to deal with it. It doesn't seem to me (right now, without having given it much thought at all) right that footballers would be locked into contracts in a way that most wage-earners never would be.

Synergetic - June 29, 2008 03:04 AM (GMT)

Yep, didn't think of that. Agree with both those points although I'm not sure what the trend was after the Bosman ruling (I'll try to see if I can find anything tommorow), and I would've thought the fellas specialising in all this legal stuff would've had enough time to work out an efficient way to use this Webster ruling. But you're right...clubs can't take the risk.

Wenger is definitely not happy with it. He has been moaning about it for a while now. He said this over two months ago on AVTO:

QUOTE

There is money there but not as much as you read in the newspapers because that's not true. But there is some money there available, but I feel with my financial package, the first thing I must make sure is to keep the players we have at the moment and that's what people forget. The new rules put you under threat to lose your best players because after 3 years, any player can walk out, after 2 years any player can walk out over 28. So the rules have completely changed and the structure of the wage bill is always under threat because of that new rules.

http://z13.invisionfree.com/goonersweb/ind...=31212&st=0&hl=

bergstar - June 29, 2008 06:33 AM (GMT)

QUOTE (Rkane @ Jun 29 2008, 02:05 AM)

Agreed, I think he's wrong again with this one. The scaremongering after Bosman ruling never materialised into anything.

I do think that the whole wage/contract thing has spiralled out of control and I don't think Wenger can move with it, this will be the reason he'll quit club management when this contract ends.

Fats - June 29, 2008 08:05 AM (GMT)

I think the guy needs to retire.

I feel he is slowly losing the plot and spouts quite a bit of total drivel IMO.

One more season for me, and If he gets no closer to the title and continues to"stick to his beliefs" then maybe a move upstairs is what needs to happen.

Wenger has been a brilliant manager and possibly the best in Arsenal's history and has been the most influential manager in the prem thus far, but everything runs it's course.

bergstar - June 29, 2008 08:11 AM (GMT)

I see what you're saying fats, I agree with some. Wenger seems unable to move the way that the game is going, rightly or wrongly.
Everyone has a job at their clubs, Fergie manages Utd, he leaves the financial running to the people that are employed to do that role, same with most clubs, thats not his remit, he is single minded on the playing front, if the clubs financial powers let him buy a player they will, it's up to them to safegaurd the club, be the custodians of the club, not Ferguson.
Not Arsene, he's a control freak for sure, he takes it upon himself to get involved in every aspect of the running of the club.

arsenal901 - June 30, 2008 10:19 PM (GMT)

QUOTE (Rkane @ Jun 29 2008, 01:05 AM)

international football is not getting any better is it? ok, may be his prediction of 5 years was a bit too early but seriously speaking, how many people actually really care about international football? majority of the football fans are more excited by an arsenal-man utd match or say barca-madrid match etc... the quality of the football in the national leagues is miles ahead of international football... international football is still in the picture because of the exclusivity of the world cups and euros which are every 4 years... if they were to be every year like the CL, no one wud give a damn about them!

arsenal901 - June 30, 2008 10:35 PM (GMT)

QUOTE (Fats @ Jun 29 2008, 08:05 AM)

care to say what he said that was wrong? IMO he is the best manager in world football.. yes, he is stubborn but with the limited cash we have, he has done a tremendous job... seriously speaking, i cant understand what people are on when they say he has lost the plot in the last few years... after 2005, we were 10 minutes away from CL winners medal, 2007 was a disappointment with the move to the new stadium and last season, it was just unfortunate how things unfolded.. bad decisions, bad captaincy etc etc! im sure if wenger wants, he can blow the cash and put the club under more debt but he truly cares for the club and its future... i wud take wenger over ferguson, mourinho, scolari, advocaat and all top name managers any day... im not asking u to think like me but im just asking u to expand your perspective a little bit more!

Rkane - June 30, 2008 11:02 PM (GMT)

QUOTE (arsenal901 @ Jun 30 2008, 11:19 PM)

QUOTE (Rkane @ Jun 29 2008, 01:05 AM)

But they're not, every two years they still pull in fantastic crowds and worldwide audiences. Sure, friendlies are dead but look at England international qualifiers, most of the time the stadium is full even though the team is shite.

If international football was dead then the tournaments would be too. They never will be so on this occasion Wenger got his prediction wrong. It happens.

Spurs Hate La-Sagna - June 30, 2008 11:35 PM (GMT)

QUOTE (Fats @ Jun 29 2008, 09:05 AM)

Can see where you're coming from, after all, this is a results driven industry and 4 years without a trophy might be a step too far.

TBH I don't have any qualms with Wenger, I normally agree with his tactics and all that, but his hesitance in the transfer market is the only thing that annoys me about him. If he spent a bit more money on a couple of players to give us more depth I'm certain that title would have been ours this year. If he doesn't spend and increase the depth this year, we'll have the same problem next year.

Get Bendtner - June 30, 2008 11:39 PM (GMT)

Wenger is a cock.

Sack him now before he has us playing in a ninety thousand seater stadium. :angry:

Mr Brighterside - July 1, 2008 06:38 AM (GMT)

are there many sports without transfer fees that are not run on the basis of a franchise system?

how would an nfl or nba type transfer system affect us?

what I like about football is that clubs develop their own talent and so you get real characters like parlour, gerrard and others who stay for their whole careers at a club and are utterly loyal to it

Professor Zim - July 1, 2008 07:58 AM (GMT)

Trouble with Wenger is he's constantly spouting out stuff like this, much of the time contradicting what he's previously said, it's difficult to take him seriously in that respect. Many people make a joke of his after match interviews where he claims not to have seen something when it goes against the opposition but is the 1st to complain when something goes against us.

I personally feel his stubborness is now on the verge of holding us back, he's reluctant to invest, refuses to concede his team are maybe not as good as he thinks and despite having a completely foreign team and him also being foreign is completely against a foreign owner.

He's also now started saying winning isn't the most important thing, to me that suggests a bit of a defeatist attitude....and willing to accept 2nd best, sure there are clubs with more money but if you spend your money wisely on the right players you can still win it. Unfortunately for us he seems very reluctant to spend, doesn't replace players that leave and find excuses like injuries for our failure........he's definitely changed over the years IMO for the worse.

The defence is another example, he doesn't want to bring anyone in yet we were a shambles at the back last season and really have been for a fair few seasons.

Rkane - July 1, 2008 07:09 PM (GMT)

QUOTE

When things go against you of course it is very frustrating. You have to stay motivated though and what drives me on is my love for football, and also what drives me on is to try and come back and win. When you are a winner you come back. You come back and say, let's show that we can win it.

What a second rate loser :coffee:

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