Ted Hughes wrote:john68 wrote:UeFA have the right to set whatever criteria they wish for qualification into one of their competitions. It is their competition. The criteria has to be met by every club that wishes to enter so it is NOT restrictive in any way. If we were to meet the criteria, we would be free to enter.
This is done all the time and there are scores of examples where a body sets its own criterai and clubs have to meet it.
In the Olympic games, in some events a standard is set to meet before qualification.
In the Rugby league Superleague, certain ground, expected crowd size, ground facility etc was set and those unable to meet it or promise to meet it within 3 years were barred.
Football leagues throughout the country disallow clubs from being promoted into them because the often don't meet the ground criteria.
As to the racist anti Arab challenge, The simple answer from UeFA is. Should the Arabs meet the criteria (set for all), they would qualify.
I'm not saying it is fair or just...but it is within their rights.
It is within their rights to set those criteria as it's within our owner's rights to put money in. Not being in debt that you can't pay is one thing, being prevented from paying it is another. Can you give an example in sport or anything else where a business is prevented from using perfectly legitimate revenue streams though? I can't.
I suppose I look at it from a business perspective. It's illegal for Directors to run a business that's insolvent (either it cannot afford to pay its debts or its liabilities exceed its assets). At that point they must forget shareholder interests and focus solely on creditor interests. So many football directors would be behaving illegally if they did what they do in civvy street.
Most businesses don't have a benefactor who would bail them out (although in some cases some governments take this roll: e.g. banks, Car manufacturers, Utilities...where there's an argument for a national interest)
In a competitive sense that is bullshit.
So as football is first and foremost a competition, the authorities do have a right (a responsibility) to make rules which keep it financially fair. These can only be challenged when they are inconsistent with law (like Bosman proved with freedom of movement and restraint of trade). However no-one is going to prove that it is inconsistent with law that the Scum should let their massive debt increase and their assets reduce and still spend spend spend.
Plus they are in cahoots with the European Union and making sure they buy into the regs before they're announced...
UEFA/EUThe Plan
