aka Dus

See my answer above and for the fact that this has to be a working arrangement, not a mechanism of 'obligations' in a financial sense. The clubs have a good argument from the POV that they pay wages and stand to lose out if players return from international duty injured. But the standpoint these cases have taken - that Charleroi definitely would have done better had their player been ok (and to a lesser extent Lyon) can surely never be reasonably proven in a court of law. It's entirely the wrong forum for this matter. There's a solution here somewhere in the compromise between player, club, country and insurers that will satisfy all concerned. At least until they invent some immediate 'injury healing' machine like they used ot have on Star Trek years ago, which one might think would be the only way to satisfy the G14 on the basis of this court case. Though something tells me money might also be of some comfort to them while their players lie injured in the treatment room.

I think the clubs do have a good argument but I'd like to see both sides win. I hope to see a mutually benefical result where the specificity of sport in the context of the labour market is recognised. Otherwise you can forget about grassroots development of the game outside of 'club academies'.

I'd wager that it is most certainly not the best solution. It's the simplest solution but not the best.

They already do that. But to suggest they might waive a week's wages is probably an ideal too far.

FAI facing ?750,000 players bill for internationals Thursday March 23rd 2006 Soccer Gerry McDermott DAMIEN DUFF may never get to wear the green of Ireland at Croke Park if top European clubs succeed in winning compensation for the release of players for international duty. A high-powered FAI delegation visited Brussels yesterday to warn EU officials and Irish MEPs about the serious consequences for soccer in Ireland if they had to face a bill of ?750,000 for players' wages every time the senior international team played a game. "Having to play three-quarters of a million euro at today's wages everytime we play an international match is simply not sustainable," said FAI chief executive John Delaney. "The ?10m which we invest in the grassroots would be put at risk and it would mean that our star players might not get to play for their country." With Croke Park about to be given UEFA's five-star standard it could eventually mean that the only time Ireland's top players actually get to play a competitive game in Dublin would be if their clubs reached a Champions League final at GAA headquarters. Some of Ireland's current internationals are among the top earners in the English game with Damien Duff earning around ?100,000-a-week at Chelsea, while Tottenham's Robbie Keane and Manchester United's John O'Shea would be paid approximately ?50,000 per week. The FAI currently pays an insurance premium of ?60,000 per game which covers each player's wages for up 26 weeks should they get injured while playing for their country. But G14, the lobby group for Europe's top football clubs, is angry that clubs have to continue paying players wages while they are on international duty and is unhappy that profits which FIFA and UEFA make from the World Cup and European Championships goes to associations rather than clubs. Former German international striker Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who is both chairman of Bayern Munich and vice-chairman of G14, said: "The legal analysis we have asked for concludes that we have to release our players but we don't have to do it for free." They are also backing Belgian club Charleroi, who this week sued FIFA in the Belgian courts for compensation after one of their players was out for eight months after being injured in an international match. That case is expected to go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights and the ruling is likely to have widespread implications for the international game which is why Delaney, FAI director of strategy Declan Conroy and FAI planning and development director John Byrne were in Brussels. With the help of Fianna Fail MEP Eoin Ryan, they were able to meet Ireland's European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, EU Director of Sport Pierre Mairesse and the vice-president of the European Premier Football Leagues, Jean Marie Phillips, as well as the Irish MEPs. The message to all was short and to the point. "We told them that although G14 may want to be paid for the use of players they are forgetting where those players came from. It was at the grassroots that their talent was nurtured and developed by volunteer coaches and it is the grassroots which will suffer if associations like the FAI have to start paying the players' wages," said Delaney. "G14 also seem to forget that playing international football increases the capital value of players and also increases their merchandising values. The game's superstars owe their fame to the profile they receive from playing international football. G14 cannot have their cake and eat it." At today's huge salaries, the FAI estimate that it would cost them ?750,000 per game if they had to pay clubs compensation for the release of international players. Last year Ireland played nine internationals which would work out at ?6.75m - around 30 per cent of the FAI's annual turnover. "Having to pay this money would leave us with two options. We could either slash the amount of money we spend on the development of the game or else we don't use our star players. "Neither option is desirable so it is a catch 22 situation," said Delaney

It's like an astronomical black hole (no pun intended). Gravity is so strong inside that, technically, he is never brought down - the world/ground is brought up to it. It's a curse and he deserves our sympathy.

The Del Horno one was particularly impressive. Steve Bennett is a blind t*** The sending off was ridiculous. Drogba, meanwhile, was brought down by the weight of his own cavernous vagina.

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Hope 1 of them is Rafa...

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I thought we didn't play amazingly better than when we played them at home in the League, yet they somehow spawned a point out of us. Just goes to show how fine a line it is. We'll still see and buy strikers this summer, make no mistake, but it's better this way than having them all in the doldrums, so long as it continues.

His attitude will be something Rafa will suss out, like Houllier did with Bowyer, to his credit.

How many is that for Crouchy so far this season? 6 in the league, and 6 in other comps?

He does seem to have a bit about him.

Because he is a steamer?

He had a good career and is finishingup at his hometown club. Good for him. Likeable player, should be held in good esteem by our lot I think.

I agree with all that - the FA meddling and spoofing, UEFA doing their work in shadows and autocrats running FIFA and member FAs. But I still wouldn't see how the G14 waving their money clips around is the best way to fix those problems.

For Par 4 I mean that if you say tonight is evidence of International football adversely affecting club football, there are dozens of examples of clubs adding to their own burden through tours and friendlies everytime there is a gap in the calendar. Which goes to show that club's greed/financial necessity is a far bigger problem than giving an international manager a few friendlies to get his teams together in.

I'd simply reduce the amount of League games. 18 teams max per division, no ridiculously timed friendlies (but not necessarily less - merely structure the international calendar better). It's not FIFA's fault that we are going to play 70 games this season. I can see every FA-rearranged game to help the National team (a lá tonight) with 5 club organised junkets abroad to raise a bit of cash. The WC is the most watched sports event there is. Of course it's only once every 4 years.

It's fairly obvious that the best clubs should be better on paper than the best national sides. But the main reason for that was the removal of the various 'foreigner' rules. It should be possible to prioritise International football without adversely affecting national Championships. The reason it doesn't seem possible at the moment is solely because of the greed of the big clubs who seem quite prepared to grind their stars into the ground to maximise TV revenue. The football calendar is a mess because it tries to suit all the big guns in the big leagues. FIFA don't have the balls to do anything about that, so the G14 are already cracking that whip. PS, I bet you the world cup is more watched than the CL knoxy.

Heh heh. It shouldn't. I love the CL, more than the WC in many ways but maybe only because it's there more often. There has to be a balance between club and international football. Both should be protected and they should co-exsist in a way where both are given rights to develop in the right way. But that inevitably leads to the need to legislate in favour of the competitions like the World cup and European championships etc which do not exist to enrich competing clubs as a very significant by-product of deciding the Champions of Europe.

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In the long-term, the G14 does seem to be a threat to the existence of international football involving the best players. These clubs will continue to chip away at that aspect of the game, and the governing bodies must be vigilant. I like international football. I like the circus of the international events. I like the occasional anachronism of players competing for something other than money, even if it is for something as dubious as national pride. I like the fact that it gives people from places bereft of a big club side the chance to have 'their' team competing at the top level. The G14 would kill all that tomorrow.