FIFA's move in question

The backers of Clydebank's proposed move to Dublin have condemned an attempt to alter FIFA's rules which is aimed at blocking relocations by football clubs from one country to another.

It emerged this week that a proposed amendment to Article 54 of FIFA's statutes aimed at ensuring that a club seeking to move home from one jurisdiction to another would have to have the permission of both associations affected has been put forward for consideration by delegates to the federation's congress which meets in France in June.

But Clydebank director Colm McCarthy yesterday claimed that the fact that such a move was seen as being necessary now backed his club's original assertion that there was nothing in the statutes to legitimately hinder their move.

"What FIFA is now being asked to sanction," he says "is the creation for the first time, of a Europe-wide system of national cartels in the football business. We will be seeking a ruling from the EU Competition directorate that any such move is contrary to the treaty of Rome."