Club v Country Enters Courtroom

In the world of football, the great club versus country debate is an age old argument that has been debated in pubs around the world even more than whether a certain beer tastes great or is less filling. Today the club/country debate takes its rightful place in a Belgian courtroom as a team seeks compensation from FIFA after one of its players was injured on international duty. Belgian club Charleroi, backed by the mysteriously sounding G14 collective of some of the world’s most powerful teams, is arguing that it deserves money because it missed out on winning a league championship after one of its players was hurt playing for Morocco.

There has always been tension between club teams and country federations, but with the increasing amount of money clubs are spending on players it is only natural that they are reluctant to put their players at risk playing while they play in international competitions and friendlies.

G14 General Manager Thomas Kurth says the clubs have three wishes:

“Firstly, clubs and national associations should be protected from the cost of player injuries. Secondly, clubs should get some reasonable compensation for the contribution they make to international tournaments,” he said.

“Thirdly, a harmonised international calendar for club on national team football must be mutually agreed between clubs and federations.”

This is, of course, directly at loggerheads with FIFA, which proudly points out that national federations receive 75 percent of revenues from international competitions and therefore if anyone it is the federations that should be the ones providing the compensation. FIFA fails to mention where the other 25 percent goes and we’d hate to speculate that it lines the pockets of president Sepp Blatter and his band of cronies.

How will this all turn out? That remains to be seen but we should know soon:

The judges have between 30 and 90 days to make their decision. “Due to the importance of the case, they are aiming to reach a decision in about half the time,” a court official said.

Apparently this issue is a lot more important than, say, the trial of Slobodan Milosevic which only lasted for a few years.

We can’t wait for this debate to finally come to an end. Everyone knows that taste great is a much better argument than less filling any day of the week anyway.