Source: Leaders in Football
12th June 2009
At the inaugural Leaders in Football event last October, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, CEO of the Association of European Professional Football Leagues, delivered an overview of the role that the EPFL plays in the governance of the game. The EPFL, consisting of 28 member and associate member leagues, works, according to Medeiros, from a proactive and reformist perspective to be fully engaged in key issues facing professional football in Europe. The EPFL grew out of the Association of European Union of Premier Professional Football Leagues (EUPPFL) that was founded in 1997 with 12 member leagues. With the signing of a new constitution in 2005, the EPFL formed not only with an expanded membership, but also with an expanded role from that which was envisioned for the EUPPFL: to play a decisive part in the process of positively reshaping the organization of the game in Europe, by consolidating its position, safeguarding the legitimate interest of the Members and implementing new initiatives for the good of the game.
The EPFL is pleased that its views, having been sought and welcomed by football's governing bodies as well as the EU and national governments, are reflected by EU initiatives that he says are 'eloquent examples of this successful and constructive cooperation'. By espousing the views proposed by the EPFL, Medeiros insists EU institutions have recognized fundamental principals such as the specificity of sport, the function, structure and autonomy of leagues, the principle of subsidiarity, the growing importance of intellectual property rights to sport, the compatibility of joint selling of rights with EU law and the vital role the sale of rights in this way occupies in the business models of leagues and clubs.
Medeiros stressed the importance of the recognition of the principle of subsidiarity by EU institutions, which acknowledge that all decisions not of strict public interest that can be taken at the national level by national associations and leagues are left to those bodies. 'Let me reassure you that in this respect the views of the EPFL will remain unchanged, and those views are that the primary responsibility for the organisation and governance of football lies with the proper national and international football bodies,' Medeiros said.
While it will resist unnecessary interference where national associations and leagues should be left to function freely, the EPFL does recognize and welcome the need for public policy in some areas. These areas according to Medeiros are: the protection of IP rights, combating Internet piracy and ambush marketing, regulating sports betting and developing a common set of principles for good governance in sport (transparency, democracy, accountability and full representation of stakeholders).
The EPFL recognizes the need for greater legal certainty and cooperation between football governing bodies and political institutions, and the urgency of this need in areas that demand public policy. 'But let me be clear,' Medeiros states, 'what we cannot accept and what we will never accept in any circumstance is that the need for greater cooperation and the need for greater legal certainty is used or misused as some sort of Trojan horse to compromise the specificity of sport, the autonomy of sports bodies and the fundamental principal of subsidiarity, the principal that has enabled football bodies at the different levels to efficiently, democratically run their competitions and govern their own sectors.'
