Bernard Lapasset, chairman of the International Rugby Board, revisits for Nice Premium and WEB TV Nice the debate in which he participated: the composition of teams related to player quotas and their release by clubs.
Several leaders of national and international sports federations and the Faculty of Law in Nice gathered at the CUM. The organizer of this conference, the Research Team on the Transformations of Europe and its Societies (Ermes), organized four debates: “Sports activity, a specific activity?” with the presence of Valérie Nicolas, “Sports management, a specific system?” featuring Yvan Mainini, president of the French Basketball Federation, among others. However, it was in the afternoon when the discussions were most interesting. Jérôme Champagne, Director of International Relations for FIFA; René Marsiglia, Director of the Training Center for OGC Nice; and Philippe Piat, President of the UNFP debated on “the protection of training: training and transfer of young players.” Earlier in the afternoon, Jonathan Hill, Head of European Affairs for UEFA; Bernard Lapasset, Vice President of CNOSF and President of the IRB; Markus Studer, Chief Operating Officer of FIBA; and Jérôme Champagne addressed “the composition of club teams: the claim of player quotas and the composition of national teams: the ‘release’ of players by clubs.”
Bernard Lapasset: “This conference will allow us to make progress.”
“This exchange was extremely interesting,” admits Bernard Lapasset, president of the IRB (International Rugby Federation, in charge of the rules) and vice-president of CNOSF. “The legal culture of Nice is doing tremendous work on the legal structuring of sports. It is very important for sports federations to see these evolutions,” points out the former rugby player and ex-president of the French Rugby Federation. There is a real problem with the compatibility of the rules with EU law under the principle of free movement of persons, which does not allow national quotas. “We have seen where we stand in major issues. We will make progress in a good number of areas,” concludes Bernard Lapasset.
The problem of quotas
Since the Bosman ruling established in 1996, the various European sports leagues have welcomed players from Africa, South America, and the rest of the world. Teams can include in their rosters many men and women from all corners of the globe. This now poses a problem particularly in terms of training young athletes and the financial balances of clubs. Today, these quotas are being challenged. International federations wish to limit the number of non-EU players (6+5 in football, 9+6 in rugby).
This video is from Web TV Nice website www.webtvnice.com.
