EU seeks fair play for Russian players

Russian professional footballers working in the European Union should be treated in the same way as European players with no limits on the number of matches they can play, a top EU lawyer said yesterday.

EU advocate-general Christine Stix-Hackl said the Spanish Football Association's restriction on the number of matches Russian footballer Igor Simutenkov could play for his Spanish team Deportivo Tenerife amounted to discrimination.

The Spanish football association sets a quota for the number of foreign footballers from outside the EU that can be fielded in matches and Simutenkov was included in this group.

Stix-Hackl said in a non-binding judgement that Simutenkov was due the same working rights as his EU team-mates due to a partnership agreement between the EU and the Russian Federation.

The partnership agreement "prohibits discrimination on grounds of nationality as regards working conditions," she said.

"Professional footballers of Russian nationality who are legally employed in a member state have an unrestricted right to participate in competitions run by their association," the Advocate-General said in a statement.

Opinions of the ECJ advocate general are not legally binding but they are usually followed by the court in future rulings.