Historic agreement between FIFA and players

[Lazie]

World football governing bosses and international players have signed a historic agreement here, aimed at improving co-operation between the two parties.

FIFA and FIFPro, the syndicate of international players, have agreed to new rules regarding player rights.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his FIFPro counterpart Philippe Piat signed the deal at Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium Thursday.

The agreement will give players a spokesperson affliliated to FIFA whilst also improving the conditions of their playing contracts.

It also puts in place a stipulation that changes to the rules regarding transfers cannot be made without agreement from both parties, giving players more of a say in FIFA rulings.

[Lazie]

RE: Historic agreement between FIFA and players

<SPAN id=intelliTXT><H1>FIFA plan curb on foreign players</H1><P class=story_panel_text valign="top"><SPAN id=intelliTXT nd="1">World football's governing body FIFA and players union FIFPro will propose a limit on the number of foreigners who can play for a club.</SPAN><P nd="2">The two organisations, who signed an agreement on Thursday, propose the implementation of a "6+5" system, whereby six members of a side must be homegrown. <P nd="3">FIFA president Sepp Blatter explained that, in future, this ruling would "protect the national teams". <P nd="4">He said: "At the moment, clubs are not so interested in forming players because they know that later on, they may leave. <P nd="5">"Also, the bigger teams are more interested in signing established players than forming new ones, and this is something we need to look at. <P nd="6">"We do not want to put an end to transfers, but hope to bring back the local or regional base that existed previously." <P nd="7">Blatter warned politicians not to intervene in an attempt to invalidate decisions and claimed that football should be left to govern itself. <P nd="8">"They should leave football in peace and learn to respect the character of the game. Football is more than capable of organising itself," said Blatter.</SPAN>