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Series: Digger
Lazio are unhappy with the way Federio Macheda was signed by Manchester United. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins
Fifa has vowed to scrutinise all international transfers of minors in an effort to ensure clubs are not "buying parents", as Lazio's president accused Manchester United of doing with Federico Macheda.
Claudio Lotito claimed United had offered Macheda's parents "important jobs" worth "millions of euros" before they took the striker to Old Trafford a day after his 16th birthday. Under Fifa rules players may only cross international borders if their families are relocating for a reason unconnected with football.
But the practice persists and steps were taken at Fifa's executive committee meeting last month to bring it to an end. Under tightened rules the first attempt to register a player in a foreign country must pass by Fifa's players-status committee, a body now headed by the former Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson.
The committee will have the power to interview the clubs that trained the players and, if abuses of the rules are uncovered, will be empowered to apply "appropriate sanctions" believed to include the annulment of the transfer.
To assist in the scrutinising process the world governing body has also drawn up a document under which every player associated with an academy anywhere in the world must be registered. The document will establish which club players trained with, providing a clear mechanism for compensation if they are poached.
Once operational an electronic database, the "transfer-matching system", will make policing the system simpler. The new regime, under the title "Protection of Minors", will come in to force from 1 October.
Lazio are unhappy with the way Federio Macheda was signed by Manchester United. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins
Fifa has vowed to scrutinise all international transfers of minors in an effort to ensure clubs are not "buying parents", as Lazio's president accused Manchester United of doing with Federico Macheda.
Claudio Lotito claimed United had offered Macheda's parents "important jobs" worth "millions of euros" before they took the striker to Old Trafford a day after his 16th birthday. Under Fifa rules players may only cross international borders if their families are relocating for a reason unconnected with football.
But the practice persists and steps were taken at Fifa's executive committee meeting last month to bring it to an end. Under tightened rules the first attempt to register a player in a foreign country must pass by Fifa's players-status committee, a body now headed by the former Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson.
The committee will have the power to interview the clubs that trained the players and, if abuses of the rules are uncovered, will be empowered to apply "appropriate sanctions" believed to include the annulment of the transfer.
To assist in the scrutinising process the world governing body has also drawn up a document under which every player associated with an academy anywhere in the world must be registered. The document will establish which club players trained with, providing a clear mechanism for compensation if they are poached.
Once operational an electronic database, the "transfer-matching system", will make policing the system simpler. The new regime, under the title "Protection of Minors", will come in to force from 1 October.
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