O'Neill criticises transfer change plan

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill has assailed the proposals for wholesale change to the transfer system.

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill has assailed the proposals for wholesale change to the transfer system.

FIFA and UEFA are close to agreeing a new system which could see players changing clubs when they choose - at the expense of a short-term ban.

That effectively means players' contracts are all but meaningless. O'Neill said it could plunge the game into chaos.

He said: "What happened to the good old-fashioned contract? If you sign it for four years and don't honour it you are penalised - and heavily penalised.

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"People have got to realise that football is a different business. I don't care what they say.

"Players should be paid what they are worth - I don't have any problem with that - but I think some of the players realise that a contract should be a contract. You might as well not sign one."

The changes, which have yet to be accepted by the players' international union FIFPro, have been dubbed by some as Bosman 2.

That is a reference to the ground-breaking legal case won by a European player whose club would not release him after his contract expired.

That led to a ruling allowing all players over 23 to be able to move on free transfers as soon as they became out-of-contract.

O'Neill said: "I didn't see anything incredibly wrong with the transfer system pre-Bosman 1".

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