The Scottish Football Association (SFA) and Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) have been reported to the UK’s competition watchdog over concerns they are restricting the rights of youth footballers.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been asked to investigate the rules around players’ freedom to move between club academies.
Scotland’s Children’s Commissioner and campaigning organisation RealGrassroots have lodged the complaints, arguing the current system violates competition law and economically exploits young players.
The CMA is being urged to specifically look at:
• The set caps on how many youth players one club can recruit from another;
• The rule that allows clubs to unilaterally extend the “registration period” where players are locked into their current club;
• The “implausibly high fees” that any new club has to pay upfront to bring in a player from another club’s academy; and
• The ban on players and their parents from approaching other clubs about a move.
The Children’s Commissioner claims together this amounts to an anti-competitive “no poach” deal where clubs agree not to compete to recruit youth players from each other.
Nick Hobbs, head of advice and investigations at the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, said the CMA is the only body with the authority and legal powers to force the SFA and SPFL to change the rules.
Mr Hobbs added: “The current rules give child footballers less protection, and less control over their own lives, than adult professionals.
“There is a massive power imbalance between them and the clubs they sign for which can amount to economic exploitation – this is a fundamental breach of their human rights.
“The office’s role is to protect and promote children’s rights and this action will, we believe, ultimately result in better rights protections for young footballers.”
This long-running issue was first raised in a petition at the Scottish parliament in 2010.
The Children’s Commissioner said Holyrood’s Public Petitions Committee produced a report in 2020 which made “clear recommendations to remove the worst of the SFA and SPFL restrictions”.
However, changes are yet to be made to the Children’s Commissioner’s satisfaction.
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Footballer Kieran Gibbons, 29, came through the SFA’s Club Academy Scotland system and said getting rid of the rules “is a no-brainer”.
He said “unbeknown” to him, he was contracted to a senior club’s academy between the ages of 11 and 13.
Mr Gibbons said: “The training facilities were not the best and didn’t even have changing rooms.
“I was travelling a distance and had to come straight from school and had grown tired of this and when the time came to sign on for the following season I asked to leave.”
The footballer said the club “were not happy” but agreed to let him go, but he said they then held onto the registration.
Mr Gibbons said this only came to light when other senior clubs invited him for trials and were told they would need to pay a £9,000 fee to take over his registration.
He said: “At that time no one was able or willing to pay that for a 13-year-old, who may or may not make it to professional level.”
William Smith, co-founder of RealGrassroots, branded the rules “profoundly unjust”.
He said: “Young players have no freedom to move to the best club for them, and if their current club treats them badly, they have no ability to do anything about it.
“This puts real strain on children and their families who make great sacrifices for the chance to secure a professional contract.”
The SFA and SPFL were contacted for comment.
