Scottish youth football campaigners last night claimed a major victory in their long-running battle with the SFA and SPFL over their treatment of children in the Club Academy Scotland (CAS) system after it was revealed to MSPs at Holyrood that two controversial rules had been scrapped.
However, lawyers acting on behalf of RealGrassroots, the organisation set up in 2010 by Willie Smith of Hillwood and Scott Robertson of Musselburgh Windsor, expressed unhappiness that children at elite clubs in the CAS set-up still sign two year registrations when they turn 15 and that an "egregious" rule remains in place.
Alexander Waksman of Gunnercooke, who lodged complaints with the Competition and Markets Authority about the "no approach", "no poach" and "development contribution" rules which were in the SFA and SPFL rulebooks last December, confirmed they would continue to lobby the Scottish parliament for further change.
Ian Maxwell, the SFA chief executive, and Neil Doncaster, his SPFL counterpart, attended a meeting of the Health, Social Care and Sport committee at Holyrood yesterday to answers MSPs’ questions about “welfare and sustainability in Scottish youth football”.
Doncaster criticised the “misinformation” and “inaccurate commentary” which had been presented to the committee at a meeting which representatives of Gunnercooke, RealGrassroots and the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland spoke at in June.
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But he admitted the SPFL had removed “all rules on development contribution”. He confirmed the SFA intends to remove the “no approach” rule and the SPFL has amended a similar rule so that it only applies to professional players. He also revealed the SFA had started a consultation with its stakeholders to establish if the “no poach” rule should remain in its current form.
He insisted the SFA rule that prevents clubs from approaching a CAS player without complying with SPFL rules on commitment letters is “both proportionate and necessary” and “serves legitimate public interest objectives by preventing the exploitation of young players and undue pressure being placed upon them”.
But Doncaster stressed that there would be no rule preventing players or their parents approaching clubs going forward.
Waksman said, “It's very positive that they are getting rid of the development contribution rule. That is something that has clearly inhibited players from moving between clubs, given the financial cost that was associated with one academy taking a player from another.
“So that is a very significant win. We're very pleased that the SFA and SPFL have given in on that, as they should have done some time ago. We are also pleased to see that they are removing the no-approach rule.
“We do note that there still need to be further changes to the rule books for that to happen, but the SFA and SPFL are clearly on the record now acknowledging that that rule should be gone.
“The issue that still causes some concern is that the no-poach rule is still subject to consultation with the SFA's members. That I simply cannot understand because it is arguably the most egregious of the various restrictions.
“It is a clear agreement between clubs to limit the number of players that they recruit from one another. I can’t understand why that requires further consultation. It is very clear that this rule is unjustified and it should be removed from the rule books now. It doesn't require a lengthy consultation process.”
Waksman continued, “You wouldn’t expect a reasonable remedy to be that the person organising a cartel consults with the cartel members about whether or not the cartel should be brought to an end.
“I obviously can't speak to what is in the SFA and SPFL's mind, but it does seem to be an effort to limit the number of changes that they have to make. They do not make changes willingly. We've seen this previously. It took them 10 years to moderate the unilateral extension rules.
“While we're obviously very happy with the changes that they have announced today, there are others that still need to be made. We will be watching very closely to make sure all the changes they've committed to are in fact implemented and that the no-poach rule is removed as well.”
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The Public Petitions Committee praised the SFA and SPFL for the changes they had implemented during the years which the RealGrassroots petition PE1319 – the longest running in the parliament’s history – was being considered when they released their final report back in 2020.
However, the committee recommended ‘very strongly’ that multi-year registrations for players under the age of 16 in the CAS set-up should be abolished when its findings were made public.
The children's commissioner argued they breached six articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – which MSPs had voted unanimously in favour of incorporating into domestic law.
That registration has since been amended slightly. However, a child at a CAS elite club still signs a two-year registration when they turn 15 which they are unable to be released from unless the club agrees or their appeal to the Young Player Wellbeing Panel is successful.
Neither Maxwell nor Doncaster were questioned about children’s rights being violated by the two year registration during a lengthy grilling by MSPs at the Health, Social Care and Sport committee meeting yesterday.
Waksman said: “I suspect the committee may have looked at that and said, ‘Well, there's been some movement on that one, but no movement at all until today on development contributions, no approach or no poach’. That may be the reason, that they're focused on those rules.
“But our position remains that children should not be tied into the two year registration periods. That is wrong and children shouldn't have to sign up for that. But we would hope that the impact of that is lessened if the other restrictions are removed as well.”
Nick Hobbs, head of legal at the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, expressed hope that MSPs would continue to put pressure on the SFA and SPFL to abolish two year registrations.
“We note the concessions the SFA and the SPFL made at the Health, Social Care and Sport committee yesterday regarding the unfair treatment of child footballers in the Club Academy Scotland system. It has been a long and hard-fought road for our office and RealGrassroots to achieve these changes.
“However, we continue our calls for the abolition of the two-year registration in the CAS system – something the Scottish parliament’s Public Petitions Committee demanded back in 2020.
“We hope that MSPs will support us in keeping the pressure on the SFA and SPFL to remedy this long-running issue which continues to risk the violation of children’s rights to protection from economic exploitation.”
The CMA told RealGrassroots and the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland they would not be launching a formal investigation into the SFA and SPFL earlier this year.
But a spokesperson said, “We wrote to the SFA and the SPFL in March to remind them of their obligations to comply with competition law – particularly in relation to their rules around hiring young players and to recommend that the organisations assess their compliance.
“In early April, we received replies from both the SFA and SPFL which set out the action they are taking in response to the CMA’s letters, which includes reviewing the relevant rules. We appreciate their swift engagement with the process.”
Waksman said, “We can't know for certain whether it was the CMA complaint, the submissions we made to the committee, or our direct correspondence with the SFA and SPFL which led to these changes.
“What we can say is that without this latest action by Willie, Scott and the Children's Commissioner, we would not have seen these changes. We certainly feel vindicated, we certainly feel that we are right on the law. But we're not stopping yet. This has been a big day and a big victory, but we're not done."
RealGrassroots were approached for comment.
