Taylor Backs Under-18 Transfer Ban

Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, has backed calls for a total ban on the transfer of under-18 footballers between clubs.

Taylor’s support for the call for new regulations follows the decision by FIFA to hand Premier League club an 18 month transfer ban in a row over their supposed illegal approaches in the signing of young winger Gael Kakuta from Lens.

Said Taylor: ‘There’s been a general feeling that a ban on movement of players under the age of 18 would be better for the game.

‘Football is about competition. You can’t have all the best youngsters at the biggest, richest clubs.’

‘You need to encourage clubs, if they’re going to have youth development programmes, to be able to pick out the lads and have some time with them.
 
‘If they do move on, which may be inevitable you need a system whereby proper, effective compensation is paid. At the end of the day you can’t stop people moving but it’s about fair compensation.

‘I don’t think this situation with Chelsea would have reached the stage it has now if compensation had been agreed between the two clubs.’

FIFA has ruled that Chelsea cannot sign players until January 2011 after finding them guilty of inducing Kakuta to break his contract with Lens.

Taylor said the movement of young players between clubs is a problem issue, not least because of the pitfalls facing the many who do not make the grade.

He added that it could affect the whole Premier League as a result of the superior financial resources available to English clubs and the competition this fosters.

‘It (tapping up) happens throughout the world, it’s just that the Premier League has the most money and are able to attract the very best players in the world.

‘Every Premier League club has an extensive network abroad now in the search for talent and its becoming more pressurised and as a result people will cut corners.’

As it stands, European law prevents players from signing formal contracts tying them to clubs before their 16th birthday meaning that the club is in danger of losing him to another team when he turns 16.

This is further complicated by the fact that different nations are governed by different rules and sporting jurisdiction is sometimes at odds with employment law.

Chelsea have insisted they will ‘mount the strongest appeal possible’ to FIFA’s punishment and say the sanctions against them are ‘totally disproportionate to the alleged offence’.