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Sports

Monday September 7, 2009

Real Madrid, MU and CSKA officials stands in poll for influential role

GENEVA: Real Madrid president Florentino Perez will aim to reassert his position as one of European football's key powerbrokers when the continent's best and wealthiest clubs meet in Geneva on Monday.

Perez is among three candidates standing in a poll for two vacant places on the executive board of the 144-member European Club Association lobby group.

The others are Manchester United chief executive David Gill and CSKA Moscow president Evgeni Giner.

The seats on the 15-man board are open to officials from clubs in Europe's six most successful leagues - England, Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Russia.

The winning candidates voted for by ECA members from the six countries will complete the two-year terms begun by former Real president Ramon Calderon and former Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry who left their club jobs this year.

Joan Laporta, president of Real's main rival FC Barcelona, is already on the board.

Perez was restored to office at Real in June after a three-year exile that began when his first "Galacticos" era at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium ran out of steam.

Within a week of returning he organized bank loans to fund the signing of Kaka from AC Milan, and then completed a euro250 million ($358 million) offseason spending spree that brought Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United for a world record fee of 80 million pounds (euro94 million; $131 million).

Ironically, if elected Perez will help the ECA work with European football authority UEFA to introduce detailed rules designed to control excessive spending by clubs.

The ECA nominates four executives to sit on UEFA's Professional Football Strategy Council which is leading moves to introduce "financial fair play."

The council, chaired by UEFA president Michel Platini, announced last month it wants European clubs to break even in their football-related business activities from 2012 or face being barred from the Champions League.

The ECA is headed by Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and represents teams from Europe's 53 football nations who have had most success in continental competitions.

It succeeded the G14 group of elite clubs which was seen as too confrontational and was disbanded last year.

Members gathering for the two-day assembly will be briefed on the new financial rules, and discuss releasing players to play at the 2012 London Olympics.

European clubs want the 16-nation Olympics tournament to be for under-21 players only, because it is held when they are preparing to begin domestic seasons and many are playing Champions League qualifying matches.

The International Olympic Committee wants to keep the age limit at 23 and allow three overage players per team.

It has asked football's global governing body FIFA to consult and make a proposal on players' eligibility. - AP


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