Posted: Friday 26 August 2011
Gone but not forgotten
For the first time in 50 years, Scottish football is not represented at all in Europe at this stage of the competition. So, for this year anyway, we are gone. But we definitely won’t be forgotten if the events of this week are anything to go by. There was more drama and suspense than you’ll currently find in Glasgow’s George Square.
Following their Europa League play-off first leg victory over Glasgow Rangers, Slovenian side NK Maribor lodged a protest concerning the eligibility of Rangers’ new signing, USA international Carlos Bocanegra. The player had been signed by the club on Wednesday 17 August and played the full 90 minutes of the match in Maribor on Thursday 18th having travelled to Slovenia directly from his previous club’s base in France.
Following the defeat to NK Maribor, Bocanegra was forced to sit out Ranger’s SPL match against Motherwell on Sunday 21st August as he had not yet been granted permission by the UK Borders Agency to work in the UK. That was only granted on Monday 22nd August and he arrived at Murray Park the next day to join his new team.
Upon becoming aware of this, NK Maribor lodged an official protest to UEFA querying how Bocanegra could have the right to play in European competition but not have the appropriate clearance to play in his club’s domestic league some 3 days later.
Although the deadline for submitting your player lists for the Europa League play-off was 8 August 2011, under the Europa League rules Rangers were permitted to register a maximum of one new eligible player. In order to do so, registration had to be completed by 24:00 CET on the day before the play-off first leg match and the Scottish Football Association (SFA) had to confirm in writing that Bocanegra was eligible to play at domestic level at this time. It seems that the SFA did this and, therefore, Rangers had, as far as they were concerned, complied with the requirements of the UEFA rules.
The problem is this. The SFA rules on eligibility to play domestically concern issues of registration between the club and the SFA. The rules don’t concern themselves with issues between the club and the UK Borders Agency. The result of that is that you can be “eligible to play” as far as the SFA is concerned, but not yet have permission to work in the UK from the UK Borders Agency. The UEFA rules are not clear about what “eligible” means for the purposes of those rules.
Unfortunately for the football clubs, they are caught in the middle of all of this. Under UEFA rules, it is the club which bears the legal consequences for fielding a player who is ineligible. Under UK Border Agency rules, it is the club which would be liable if they allowed a player to play in the UK when the player did not yet have permission to work here. That could, potentially, be a criminal offence.
As it so happened, under Regulation 23.02 of the Europa League rules, NK Maribor had to lodge a written protest with UEFA within 24 hours of the match. This timeframe was not complied with and as a result UEFA rejected the protest. Not that NK Maribor will care now, having successfully made their way through to the next round. But it could have been a very different story. Rangers played Bocanegra last night. He levelled the second leg score with just 15 minutes to go and had Rangers scored again to take the game to extra time, the result could have been different. What then? Well NK Maribor may well have lodged another protest, but done so within the timescale – “within 24 hours of a match”. Their argument would have been exactly the same – that Bocanegra was not eligible to play domestically at the time he was added to Rangers list of Europa League players and therefore was not eligible to play under UEFA rules. There would have followed much debate about whether to be “eligible” to play domestically, a player must actually have permission to work on UK soil.
We’ll have to wait for more drama to unfold before that question is ever answered.
For advice on immigration and permission to work, please contact Innes Clark.
For advice on sports law, please contact Iain Young or Paul Geoghegan.
