SOCCER experts and Commission officials will meet next week in a last-ditch bid to reach a compromise on future rules governing players’ transfer fees…

Date: 30/11/00

...just days ahead of the EU's summit in Nice, where leaders are expected to issue a special declaration on sport. The Commission argues that the current transfer system breaches Union laws and abuses workers' rights to ply their trade anywhere in the EU. But competition chief Mario Monti said recent proposals by the world soccer body FIFA were “still too vague” and needed to be fleshed out.