Awaiting the EU move on transfers

As the talks concerning the future of European football's transfer system continued yesterday the Irish clubs were once again reduced to standing on the sidelines and waiting to see what emerges from a dispute which the most pessimistic observers are predicting will herald the "death of football".

Opinion is as divided within the National League as it is across the Continent with regard to what the real impact of the changes will be but everybody is agreed that they will be far reaching.

In many other countries the transition towards a situation in which footballer's enjoyed the same employment rights as those working in any other industry had been started back in 1995 when the effects of the EU's Bosman ruling started to be implemented. Here, however, the league only finally agreed to alter its rules at the end of last season and the changes aren't scheduled to come into force until January when players moving in the last six months of their current contracts will at last be in a position to talk without restriction to other clubs within the Republic.

Those planned changes may now become entirely irrelevant with the EU giving FIFA until September 20th to come up with some good reasons why the whole transfer system shouldn't be completely scrapped. Having previously hidden from the issue for around two years the world body recently said it would have an entirely new system in place by the start of the Olympics (five days before the EU deadline) and having dragged its heels on Bosman, senior league officials here concede that they would have to immediately implement anything which FIFA comes up with at this stage.

The prospect of such radical changes coming in so quickly is clearly making Merrion Square nervous but officials of the PFAI insist that, given how few players move between clubs for a fee at the moment here the impact with regard to senior players will actually be minimal.

Indeed, while both sides are waiting for the situation to be clarified there is an expectation that the proposal to entirely scrap transfers for players under 18 could hugely benefit the game here with many of those currently lost to England at 15 or 16 years of age staying on instead. The changes will be difficult to implement, of course, but on the face of it, would be a move in the right direction.

But there is also a downside for National League clubs for what seems to be envisaged at the moment is that any professional side signing a player from an amateur outfit would pay compensation rather than a fee and that the amount would be based on a set formula (possibly the player's age and the length of time he had spent at the club) rather than any estimation of his value.

In effect that could mean that any purchasing club would have to pay the same amount for an amateur player regardless of his ability or their size. Manchester United, say, would be expected to pay no more to an outfit like Cherry Orchard for a player seen as having senior international potential than St Patrick's Athletic would have to hand over for one identified as being capable of enjoying a good National League career.

If the amount set is low then the upshot may be that English sides sign up even more players than they do now while a high figure might make it difficult for senior clubs here to recruit from junior football.

A likely upshot would be an acceleration of the recent move by National League outfits into the junior and underage leagues. By one means or another the likes of Shamrock Rovers, Cork City and Shelbourne have all become firmly established in the underage scene over the past couple of years and if that enables them to sign promising players as amateurs then we can probably expect to see them step up their efforts to take on the traditionally strong schoolboy outfits.

At the same time the trend for schoolboy clubs like Cherry Orchard, Crumlin United and Belvedere Boys to forge links directly with the big Premiership outfits will also continue, especially if the English sides are effectively prevented from taking the youngsters at the stage they do now.

While most of the headlines over the weekend have been about players at the very top of the pile suddenly being able to earn £100,000 or more a week under the new proposals the polarising effect between the best and the rest is likely to be felt even by those who choose to leave this country after their 18th birthday.

For those who do particularly well with an English club will no longer have to plead for a new, improved contract when their current one still has one or more years still to run. But equally those who are not seen as making sufficient progress will no longer have any sort of long term security and will be easy and fairly inexpensive to lay off.

At the moment few of those involved are entirely clear of who will be the biggest winners or losers and much will depend on what compromise is finally arrived at over the coming weeks. What looks certain, though, is that having managed to keep their heads down for five years after Bosman the National League's clubs will have to learn to adapt rather more quickly this time around. (Emmet Malone is contactable at emalone@irish-times.ie)

Bohemians were yesterday fined around £5,000 by UEFA as a result of an incursion onto the pitch at the end of their recent game at Tolka Park against Aberdeen.

Shelbourne's Gary Haylock steps straight into a top of the table confrontation when he makes his debut for Glenavon.

The 29-year old Haylock has joined his new club on loan and his presence will be a major boost as they take on Irish League Premier Division leaders Cliftonville at Solitude.