Rage Online Blog

The Football League rules

In our last post we looked at some new rules introduced by the FA. Well, when it comes to rule-making, the Football League are never far behind.

These new rules are, on the face of it, common sense, and nothing to get too excited about. The rules that tighten up the owners and directors tests have long been required, as have those concerning financial reporting. The prohibition on third-party ownership of players should, hopefully, eliminate the farcical situation that occurred a few seasons ago when Westam acquired the services of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, when they were effectively owned by Media Sports Investments must not happen again. And we can't really comment on the new standard player contract because we don't know anything about it.

What does concern us, though, is that for all the good intentions behind the changes, the track record of the Football League in enforcing its existing rules, certainly in respect of the owners and directors tests, is pretty poor. There remain in the game far too many owners who quite clearly don't have the best interest of their club at heart. Property developers who have their eyes on the land that their club's stadium is built on, or local businessmen whose main concern is to satisfy their ego without having the necessary funds to maintain the club. If the new rules are accompanied by a new inclination to enforce them then there can be no complaints; if, however, there is no change to the League's attitude then it will remain as so much puff.

Labels: Carlos Tevez, Football League, Javier Mascherano