UEFA chief promises crackdown on agents if re-elected
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-10-20 16:55 PARIS - Lennart Johansson,
president of European football's governing body UEFA, has pledged to crack down
on regulations on footballers' agents if re-elected in January.
Johansson, who has held the post since 1990, is standing against former
French international Michel Platini, but vowed that this would be his final
four-year term if elected.
"There are new challenges before us which need to be recognised and met,"
Johansson said in his nine-page manifesto published Thursday.
"We need to achieve better financial transparency in club football and work
with the relevant authorities to take even more effective action on betting,
match-fixing and doping," said the 76-year-old Swede.
"I also want UEFA to put in place a new European-wide system of rules to
regulate agents to end the abuses which have taken place in recent years."
Johansson has been a strong opponent of G14, the grouping of elite European
clubs, and he insisted he would continue to ensure balance across European
football.
"There are always pressures to destabilise what we have created and even at
times to 'break away', protect only the richest and undermine our successful
competition structure.
"As UEFA president I have stood firm against those pressures and worked
tirelessly to protect our structures and deliver commercial success of benefit
to all in a genuine spirit of partnership and solidarity."
Johansson also expressed his intention to rid football of "the scourge of
racism".
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