PACE committee sets out wide-ranging recommendations for placing human rights at the heart of football

02/12/2021 Culture, Science, Education and Media

Football’s main players must put human rights values at the heart of the sport, a committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has said in a wide-ranging report on football governance.

The report, prepared by Lord George Foulkes (United Kingdom, SOC) for the Assembly’s Culture Committee, sets out a series of detailed practical recommendations to FIFA, UEFA and other major bodies involved in football to:

* achieve transparency, fairness and solidarity in football financing, including reform of the transfer market;

* ensure the hosts of major events comply with stringent human rights, social and environmental obligations;

* protect players, particularly young players, from abuse or exploitation;

* promote gender equality and end discrimination in the sport.

“Business must not take precedence over values” said the parliamentarians, underlining that human rights should always be the main driving force for football’s governing bodies. Among other things, the committee said:

• countries must meet basic human rights requirements before being able to host major events such as the World Cup, and any country where women faced “clear discrimination in their access to sport” should simply be disqualified;
  
  
• FIFA’s plan for a World Cup every two years could have “disastrous consequences for world football”, and urged it not to proceed without the agreement of European stakeholders and the IOC;
  
  
• FIFA should have the right to regulate the global transfer system, as well as agents and intermediaries, and should find a balanced agreement to cap agent transfer fees;
  
  
• national associations should promote equal pay and rewards for national team players of any gender;
  
  
• there should be more money and resources to create a safer environment for children and teenagers playing football, and to tackle sexual abuse in the sport;
  
  
• a “Safe Sport” agency should be created, a multi-sport, inter-institutional and intergovernmental body to deal with cases of abuse in sport.

The report, which was unanimously adopted, is due to be debated and voted on at the January plenary session of the Assembly, which brings together parliamentarians from the 47 member states of the Council of Europe.

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