UEFA have issued a strongly worded, but frankly baffling, statement asking FIFA to get a grip on the issue of releasing players for international duty. We think.

UEFA's Club Competitions Committee said it was 'seriously concerned over the confusion and uncertainty created by the recent actions of FIFA in relation to the release of players and the new rules governing international transfers.' It says 'major difficulties' are being caused by this confusion - and it wants to see 'clarification'.

UEFA's website does refer to the whole France-Australia farce, but reading the statement itself (PDF here), there's not really a specific reference to it.

Rupe adds...
Thanks to Ian Eiloart for getting to (or at least near) the bottom of this. He says that....

UEFA's complaint refers to a FIFA circular 769. A copy of the circular can be downloaded from the FIFA site. It is long, and mostly refers to compensation for transfers. However, section 6 from page 16 forward refers to release of players for international matches.

"As a general rule, the number of matches for which a player has to be released, has been reduced from 7 to 5 games per calendar year. This provision shall come into force on 1 January 2002."

"Furthermore, [for] national association's representative teams, which have qualified ex officio for a final competition (ie as holders or hosts)... the compulsory release shall comprise 8 international matches (previously 5) per calendar year. This provision shall also come into force on 1 January 2002."

Ian reckons, therefore, the complaint is that this circular (dated 24/08/01) implies that France are only entitled to call up players for 5 matches this year, whereas a recent FIFA statement (as reported by yourself) said that they are entitled to call up players for 8 matches.

However, the FIFA regulations of transfer of players, article 36, allow the compulsory call up of players for 8 internationals.

And article 46 of these regulations says that they come into force in on 1 September 2001 at the latest.

So, Ian says, "I think the root of the problem lies in contradictory statements from FIFA regarding the date at which the new regulations come into force. The circular was distributed with the new regulations and intended to 'summarise and explain the main points of the new regulations.' The circular was simply wrong about the date that the regulations came into force."