19th February 2009
Michel Platini addresses European Parliament
He is doing what he can. What about you?
Members of the European Parliament; Friends; Ladies and gentlemen;
First of all, I would like to say how grateful I am for the honour that has been
granted to football, represented by my humble self, through this invitation to
address the political groups of the European Parliament.
I think that, in two years as UEFA president, I have given more speeches on the
subject of football and the European Union than I took free kicks during my
whole career as a midfielder.
Now, since football is a simple game, I will give a simple speech. Without any
pretence.
Simply by telling you what I feel and believe about this sport that I love so
deeply, that I love more than anything, and that I know you love too.
I will therefore get straight to the point.
I have been a footballer since I was a child, but before I wore the number 10 on
pitches across Europe and the world, I spent my school years in my native
Lorraine is in many ways a melting pot of Europe: home of one of its founding
fathers (Robert Schuman), land of immigration (my grandparents came from
Piedmont), scene of endless armed conflicts, border between northern and
southern Europe and, finally, birthplace of the steel industry on which the
European Union was founded.
My two vocations as a footballer and a staunch European are a result of my
origins.
Football extends beyond borders, football irons out differences, and football
unleashes passions.
And, of course, I am speaking to you today because football, the sport that has
brought me to where I am today and has given me the greatest emotions of my
life, both positive and traumatic, is in danger.
The game of football is not really under threat, since a narrow street, a group
of children and a pair of rolled up socks or an empty tin can is enough for
football to come alive.
However, the values that football represents are in danger.
You, who lead the fight to build a stronger
Well, football has that rare gift of being able to generate enthusiasm, and
mobilise big and small, rich and poor, black and white, believers and
non-believers.
At a time when everyone is asking lots of questions about identity, belonging
and community, the national football associations – which are non-governmental
organisations – are organising and funding grassroots football in your suburbs
and local neighbourhoods.
How many immigrant children have become European on a muddy, makeshift football
pitch between two industrial wastelands?
How many children from different parts of the world have started to learn our
languages with the words corner, offside or penalty?
It is this Europe of football, this constantly evolving Europe, this
For many people, the magnificent EURO 2008 tournament epitomised football in
Europe, but for UEFA the European Championship is above all the means by which
we are able to distribute around EUR 500 million to the 53 national
associations, whose extraordinary social programmes at grassroots level give
your children and grandchildren – and I am speaking as a young grandfather
myself – the chance to kick a ball on a beautiful spring Saturday.
Elite football, the football played at European Championship and Champions
League level, is only the tip of the iceberg, or rather the top of a virtuous
pyramid.
This elite represents less than 1% of people who play organised football, only a
few thousand players, compared with the tens of millions of registered men,
women and children.
Nevertheless, elite football and the income it generates is the instrument that
enables us to support and strengthen grassroots football in our villages and
neighbourhoods.
But for this solidarity between rich and much less rich to be effective, it is
vital that the values represented by elite football are in unison with the
social and educational objectives of grassroots football.
I have always been of the opinion that my role at the head of UEFA comes with a
clear mission: the unification of the wider European football family with a
respect for financial and moral solidarity between the top and the bottom of our
pyramid.
For a number of years now, the European Parliament has been firmly committed to
safeguarding these essential values of European football.
Through the Belet and Mavrommatis reports, through a historic declaration on
fighting racism in football and thanks to the efforts of the Friends of Football
group, the Parliament has always expressed its unshakeable support for our
essential values.
Whether with regard to the specificity of sport, the autonomy of the European
sports movement’s freely elected governing bodies or the defence of the European
sports model itself, this Parliament has always stood up to be counted. I must
tell you today how grateful I am to you for this unfailing support.
Through its 2007 White Paper, the European Commission embarked on the same route
although, because of its function, it is often more tentative than directly
elected representatives such as yourselves.
At this point, I should pay tribute to President Barroso and Commissioners Figel
and Spidla. Thanks to them, we have managed to make progress in virtually every
area where there may have been slight disagreement between UEFA and the European
institutions. There is no doubt that we are now on the right track. On the right
track, but not yet at the end of it!
We are not there yet because there is still a slightly perverse tendency within
the European institutions to deny the unity of the football pyramid and to
isolate the professional game at the top.
And this is done in order to give substance to the false notion that
professional football is an economic activity just like any other.
Unfortunately, this refusal to recognise the specificity of sport – a refusal
that is refuted by this assembly as well as by the governments of the member
states - still exists in certain circles, in certain sectors, which consider
competition law to be the fundamental law of Europe.
Let me be clear, unequivocal and perhaps even a little brutal: we refuse
categorically to be held in a straitjacket or tied to prefabricated models that
are based on the false equation that professional sport = a purely economic
activity.
The whole sports community recognises that professional sport is an integral
part of sport and shares its specificity. Professional football is no more a
financial service than it is an agricultural activity. It is just as absurd to
want to regulate football through the automatic application of competition law
as it would be to do so through the Common Agricultural Policy! Although I do
admit that we also help the grass to grow!
There is a fundamental, organic link between the bottom and the top of the
football pyramid. The measures taken at the top, whether financial or sporting
in nature, often have rapid repercussions on the training clubs - often amateur
- that make up the basic structure of grassroots football.
Even the golden summit of our pyramid is occupied by clubs that are no larger
than medium-sized businesses. We must not delude ourselves, for even huge clubs
like
For the past 15 or 20 years, we have grown tired of hearing that there is no
need to regulate, that the market regulates itself perfectly, that excesses and
imbalances will disappear of their own accord, and that the growth of income in
football is an endless upward spiral.
We now know that none of this is true: that in football as in the economy in
general, the market is incapable of correcting its own excesses, and it was not
the UEFA president who said so, it was Barack Obama!
During this year's festive season, one club which had suddenly become very rich
made various astronomical bids in the transfer market.
Of course, there was a tremendous outcry in the football family, people called
it outrageous and scandalous.
Is it morally acceptable to offer such sums of money for a single player?
Many people have responded by talking about limiting players' wages by
introducing a European salary cap.
Our American friends have known for decades that sports competitions are only
attractive if they are well-balanced and if no one team possesses the ultimate
weapon.
Over the decades, they have introduced countless measures designed to maintain
this competitive balance, sporting measures combined with financial regulations
that ensure the clubs are properly managed.
- There are two things we need to think about, The first is that the American
professional sports system seems to have coped with the financial crisis better
than the stock market, financial and industrial systems of the United States.
- The second is that, although the American sports system can certainly give us
food for thought, it is completely different from the European model of sport in
a number of fundamental ways.
The European model of sport is based on open leagues, independent clubs and
promotion and relegation. The American sports system is based on franchises that
are owned by closed leagues.
While taking these fundamental differences into account, there are nevertheless
some lessons that we can learn and that we are currently looking at with the
support of experts in all kinds of different fields.
One thing is certain: European clubs are currently telling us that our system is
in danger of financially imploding in the medium term.
In consultation with them, but also, I should remind you, spurred on by the
reports of this Parliament, we are currently looking at the idea of limiting, to
a certain degree, a club's expenditure on staff - salary and transfer fees
combined – to an as yet undecided percentage of its direct and indirect sporting
revenue.
I believe that it is reasonable that UEFA should be able to decide independently
under what conditions clubs may participate in the competitions that it
organises. Of course, we will not impose any kind of diktat. That has never been
and never will be how I work.
At the end of the day, we are only at the beginning of this discussion, but it
will continue in the form of dialogue with the clubs about the future of our
licensing system and any changes will be made on a consensual basis and with a
view to strengthening this system.
Whatever happens, please do not stop us, on the basis of inappropriate
legislation, from establishing financial fair play. Do not stop us from putting
in place mechanisms that foster the integrity of our competitions and more
transparency in the management of our affairs. Do not stop us from acting
morally. Especially when all the stakeholders – clubs, players and national
associations – agree with my proposals for greater financial transparency and
better governance.
It is a question of ethics. It is a question of credibility. It is a question of
survival.
I would now like to mention another subject that is particularly close to my
heart and which is very clearly linked to the specificity of sport.
Everyone is quite rightly shocked when they find out that children are employed
in a factory that makes footballs.
But when, the next day, a television programme shows young nine-year-old
prodigies dribbling like Garrincha on a dusty pitch in
This is a typical example of double standards. Paying a child to kick a ball is
not that different from paying a child to work on a production line. Both amount
to exploiting child labour.
And when you pay a child or their parents to travel overseas, when you uproot
them from their home environment, when you make them emotionally disorientated,
I call that child trafficking. This is a sort of procuring for the purposes of
sport!
Most youngsters who are brought to
Fortunately, the conclusions of the French Presidency of the European Union
clarified the situation, talking of a two-part project, an educational part and
a sporting part. A two-part project that fully prepares the young person for a
career in sport but which does not neglect the general education that will
enable them to succeed in further education if their sporting career does not
work out as well as they had hoped.
For its part, the European Commission talks of free movement of workers from the
age of 16. This might have seemed reasonable in the 1950s, but is that still the
case today for most skilled jobs, at a time when many European countries have
raised the school-leaving age to 18?
What about young footballers who have spent two or three years in a training
academy that fully adheres to this famous two-part project of sport and
education?
Experience shows that the failure rate is much higher when a young player's
school education is disrupted by an untimely move abroad and, after being
uprooted in such a way, very few have flourished in a sporting and psychological
sense.
In particular, if such a youngster fails in their quest for sporting success,
how can we be sure that they will be properly integrated into student or
professional life when there is still a lack of common European standards to
ensure that the professional future of young athletes is fully taken into
account?
But let us leave young footballers to one side for a moment.
Providing suitable sports training alongside an appropriate educational
programme is indispensable for the future of young athletes, but it also
represents a heavy burden for a training club. The required investment in
qualified staff and infrastructures is huge. If such a club loses its best
players at a very young age, it will find it extremely difficult to continue
making a serious commitment to this kind of work.
Ladies and gentlemen, free movement from the age of 16 considerably undermines
training clubs and encourages international trafficking of children.
Besides, how does the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child define a child?
The first article of the Convention states, and I quote: "a child means every
human being below the age of eighteen years." I repeat: below the age of 18
years!
This Convention, which has been ratified by all European countries, mentions all
the subjects I have just talked about, including the exploitation of parents'
weakness. It is important, I think, to remember this.
I have therefore thought about this problem a great deal and I am now convinced
that the international transfer – yes international - of players under 18 should
be prohibited, fully in accordance with the FIFA statutes.
Some people talk about the free movement of workers. I am talking about the
protection of children.
Some talk about competition law. I am talking about the right to respect human
integrity. A child's right to grow up surrounded by their friends and family.
So let us be rational, ladies and gentlemen, and let us try to speak the same
language. The language of the heart and the language of reason. It is here that
you can help us.
As I have already said, I am a staunch European and UEFA aspires to be a good
European citizen. We are not fans of unilateralism.
We have already begun talking to the European Commission about this issue and I
hope that, with your support, we will be able to assert football's point of view
and the need to protect the interests of our young people.
The European Parliament has always been very mindful of important social issues.
The 2006 declaration on tackling racism in football was certainly a significant
milestone.
These days, football is a powerful force for integration and tolerance in a
Since last year, thanks to football,
UEFA recently received the World Fair Play Trophy for its organisation of EURO
2008 and its respect campaign.
Respect has many different aspects and facets: respect for the rules, respect
for the referee, respect for opponents, self-respect and the fight against
doping, respect for others and diversity, respect for the environment. UEFA
funds programmes in all of these areas.
With EURO 2008, we proved at least two things, Firstly, that it was possible to
organise a major international football tournament in Europe in the best
possible spirit; and secondly, that Gary Lineker was wrong, …
That was EURO 2008. By taking EURO 2012 to
Football transcends borders, cuts across barriers, does away with prejudices and
fights discrimination wherever it needs to be fought. Tolerance of racism,
exclusion, sexism or homophobia is unacceptable. Skin colour is invisible under
a football shirt. Political convictions and religious beliefs have nothing to do
with football; the sexual preferences of a number 9 are irrelevant when he takes
a free kick.
Football is a breeding ground for fraternity and diversity: we are all equal
with a ball at our feet and we must remain so!
The European Parliament is the largest democratically elected institution on our
continent; UEFA organises and gives structure to something Europeans are
extremely passionate about: together we can restore confidence in the positive
values that
There we are. That brings me to the end of my 90 minutes. I hope I have not
spoken for too long, or been too alarmist.
For me, football remains a magnificent sport. The beautiful game, as it is so
aptly named in the country that invented it. But if we want everything to remain
as it is, everything must change.
If we want to prevent football from losing its soul and being eaten away from
within, we need to take the initiative and radically change certain types of
behaviour and, in particular, certain rules.
I will do all I can to make this happen. I will do all I can for the sport that
I love and the values that it represents.
Members of the European Parliament, I will do all I can, but I urge you to do
the rest.