FIFA to ban third party ownership

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Fifa has promised to ban third-party ownership of players globally within “three or four years”, in the wake of pressure from Uefa and players’ unions to outlaw the practice.

The Guardian this week revealed how an internal Fifa report had found that third-party ownership trapped clubs in a “vicious cycle of debt and dependence” and posed risks to players and to the integrity of the game. Uefa, frustrated with Fifa’s inaction, vowed to introduce new rules to tackle third-party ownership from next season if it refused to act.

Blatter first promised to ban third-party ownership in 2007 but following an executive committee meeting in Zurich on Friday, at which the matter was not officially on the agenda, he said a clear stance had been made.

“We took a firm decision that TPO should be banned but it cannot be banned immediately. There will be a transitional period,” said Blatter. The Fifa president said a working group led by former FA chairman Geoff Thompson would be in charge of overseeing the introduction of new rules to outlaw the practice.



Typically, companies backed by unnamed investors take a stake of up to 50% in a player, with contracts usually requiring that they be sold within a specific timeframe. Sometimes the players themselves remain unaware of the arrangement while agents may have a stake in players they are representing. The Guardian reported this week that Jorge Mendes, the agent at the heart of the biggest deals in European football, was involved in an investment fund in apparent breach of Fifa rules.

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