Fuente: © UEFA (English)
http://www.uefa.com/

UEFA diary: April

/noticias.info/ uefa.com chief writer Mark Chaplin casts an eye back on what happened within European football's governing body during 2006

3 April
UEFA Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson expresses the view that, wherever possible, clubs should be run as clubs and not businesses. "A business should make a profit for shareholders, while a football club is not only about making money," Mr Olsson says in the latest edition of the official UEFA Champions League magazine Champions. "Sporting interest should come first." In the UEFA CEO's opinion, the future of club ownership "lies in a partnership between the community and the fans on the one hand, and the investors and business on the other. Football plays a big part in the social lives of millions. I would like to think it is not just all big business, and it is our duty at UEFA to protect that and make sure we preserve the game for the fans."

10 April
UEFA CEO Lars-Christer Olsson urges clubs to look at their wage bills in an effort to keep their finances on a sound footing. In an interview with the BBC World television programme Extra Time, Mr Olsson proposes - rather than capping player salaries - that player wages should only represent a certain percentage of a club's turnover. "We would like to reduce the costs for players in the balance sheets, because this is the major cost for the clubs," Mr Olsson explains. "Even the big clubs, making €100m or €200m a year, they have difficulties with their finances because wages are taking so much out - and it also means that money goes out of football. In our view, it's not a proper investment, even seen from the business point of view."

21 April
UEFA Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson refutes claims that football's traditional structures are outdated. Writing in the latest edition of the official UEFA publication uefadirect, Mr Olsson welcomes the recent show of unity by Europe's national football associations at the UEFA Congress in Budapest. "It would be nice if the image of football could always be like the one portrayed in Budapest, that of a united and supportive movement that shares the same values and is constantly seeking to improve and to live in harmony with FIFA and its fellow confederations," says Mr Olsson. "However, it has to be acknowledged that the unity expressed in Budapest was prompted above all by the dissident views of a number of renowned clubs that have grouped together to defend their own interests. As for suggestions that football's traditional structure may be out of date, Mr Olsson replies: "On the contrary, it is the embodiment of a democratic structure in which each component can be heard and climb the rungs of the hierarchical ladder."

26 April
Lars-Christer Olsson insists that the football authorities can never relax if the evil of racism in football is to be eradicated. In a TV interview, the UEFA CEO admits the problem is recurring at regular intervals in certain parts of Europe. "Unfortunately [racism] is coming back," he explains. "In some periods we have been focusing less on that, because we thought that it was less of a problem. In some countries, it has been taken care of reasonably well, like in the UK - but it's cropping up in other countries. It's not only racism, it's also wider ways of discrimination." Mr Olsson describes racism as a "sinus curve - coming, disappearing and coming back again, similar [to the situation] we have with hooliganism. In some periods, we are relaxed, we think we have got rid of the problem and it pops up again. It shows, of course, that we can never relax." notas_de_prensa_archivo