UEFA To Look At Club Takeovers Closely

Michel Platini was recently voted in as President of UEFA. It is too early to know how he will try to change UEFA in the future but what is clear is that he, like UEFA, has the football supporters interests at heart. Platini recently made a very interesting comment about football saying "It is a game before a product, a sport before a trade, a show before a business".

Last year we attended Supporters Direct's annual conference where one of the main speakers was William Gaillard, the Director of Communications of UEFA. He was an impressive and passionate speaker underlining the importance of the Supporters Trust movement in the United Kingdom and Europe. A movement which UEFA proudly backs.

During his speech Gaillard confirmed UEFA's position that "football fans are a key stakeholder group in football" and also saying that "football is the people's game and at UEFA we want to keep it that way". Gaillard also made some interesting comments saying that "UEFA deeply believes in bringing football closer to the grass roots (the rank and file)" as well as "the principles of subsidiarity". He echoed these two points throughout his speech. And in his closing words he said that he hoped that "the IESR would go a long way to protect sport from commercialism".

Gaillard's comments last year and more recently Platini's reaffirms that UEFA has the supporters interests at heart. This week Gaillard spoke on behalf of Platini/ UEFA on the recent spate of takeovers of Premiership clubs by foreigners. Bearing in mind that our Club are still in talks that may lead to a takeover or investment being made it was interesting to read what Gaillard had to say. Rather than regurgitate it word for word Teamtalk's article summarises the position nicely here