Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger fears that a new rule forcing clubs to include home-grown talent in the Premier League has offered fringe players the opportunity to use the courts to terminate their contracts.
Wenger has highlighted section 15 of the FIFA ‘Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players’ when reviewing a quota system that has been imposed on top-flight clubs.
A clause in the rule states that players who have featured in less than 10 per cent of ‘the official matches in which his club has been involved may terminate his contract prematurely on the ground of sporting just cause’.
Wenger believes this could lead to unrest as players will be able to use the courts to make decisions and tear up their agreements with clubs .
“The players have already integrated into their way of thinking that a club can only give 25 names to the Premier League,” the Frenchman told Arsenal’s official website.
“They already think, ‘if I am not in the 25 I can retire, or go here, or go there, or I go to court’, that can happen as well.
“Do not forget that somebody did not think in England that, if you play less than 10 per cent of games in a season, under Fifa rules you can get rid of your contract.
“I would like to know, when they voted for that in the Premier League, if they knew this rule.
“If you have not played more than 10 per cent of games, you can get in front of a Fifa committee that then decides how much money you have to pay to buy out your contract. That is a rule.
“If players are paid for playing and you do not give them the chance to play they can go to court and ask for that money from you because they never had that chance to play. If you are not even in the 25, how can you play?”
Section 15 also states that ‘a professional may only terminate his contract on this basis in the 15 days following the last official match of the season of the club with which he is registered’.
