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Monthly Archives April 2020

Commentary by Gene Swinton, ‘Sports D³’ Founder & CEO on the video published by FIFA’s Emilio Silvero on the subject of Third-Party Ownership (TPO) regulation.

Source: https://youtu.be/xXZGB__wr6M

This turned out to be a more elaborate version of Nick’s article in ‘Football Legal’ last year, which I found to be the best piece on TPO so far not just from legal prospective, but commercial too. Thank you for sharing! Many important points were raised indeed, also glad to see the prospects of changes.

However, my main concern about the current status quo remains. The very last comment in the Q&A section about “socialism vs. capitalism” was the closest it got to my area of concern.

The role of regulator in any industry is to ensure purity and fairness of competition, … unless it is a natural monopoly. What I find fundamentally wrong with TPO regulation in it’s current form is that FIFA, as a regulator, is mistakenly treating football industry (specifically flow of capital) as a natural monopoly. As a result FIFA’s manual ”central planning” approach to allocation/redistribution/flow of resources creates distortions (repeatedly) within various layers of the industry.

The solution to existing assymetries/distortions can be found within the economic theory’s Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), and to a smaller extent in the regulation of the industry. We do need ground rules, but excessive centralization/over-regulation will only create unneccessary burdens both for FIFA and the industry without yielding results.

In my opinion (shared by clubs across continents), EMH can be achieved in football/soccer industry by inviting the OPEN MARKET FORCES into the industry and specifically into the Transfer Market, i.e. adapt regulatory framework to invite BILLIONS OF FOOTBALL FANS to participate economically in this market side-by-side with billionaires and financial conglomerates (who we traditionally tend to focus on in conversations re TPO).

Democratic formation & flow of capital can deliver the purity of competition that we all wish to achieve and eliminate the existing distortions, all w/o violating the integrity of the game or creating external influence on internal policies.

The last person in the video to ask the question just barely touched on the tip of what can be done to DEMOCRATIZE the soccer industry. This subject matter is very complex – anyone interested feel free to message me directly to have a bigger conversation.

#SportsDemocracy #freemarket #FanInvestors #FIFA #UEFA #Sports #Football #soccer #SportsD3 #SD3 #digitalassets #tokenization #DeFi

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Distortion #2: Regulatory restrictions limit club’s choices in search of capital & resources.

This is really amusing, ‘cos it comes only 2 days after my write-up where I draw parallels between football and politics.


“Lavrov noted that a grand football club in Europe had to revoke its request for assistance from a Russian non-governmental organisation that is helping with medical supplies amid the pandemic after being discouraged from receiving Russian help”.

Russian: https://bit.ly/2KBIfER
English: https://lnkd.in/dV5je3Y


Wouldn’t it be great if that undisclosed ”grand football club in Europe” could just turn to millions of their loyal football fans and crowd-fund the required capital/resources, skipping the entire need to play the game of politics and rather focus on what they do best – playing the game of football?

Football (soccer) is full of economic distortions resulting in consistently unpredictable side-effects.

Very curious to hear more about this story to validate my early assumptions.

#SportsDemocracy #freemarket #FanInvestors #FIFA #UEFA #Sports #Football #soccer #SportsD3 #SD3 #digitalassets #tokenization #DeFi

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Distortion #1: Excess of regulatory participation in the industry puts FIFA in the shoes of a micro-manager.

Do you find football and geo-/politics to have a lot in common? In both cases ‘politicians’ tend to destroy the economic value. Let’s recap key points from today’s article in “Independent”. Mr. O’Neill:

  • complains about the drain of young talent to the Republic from N. Ireland
  • yet, not willing or able to “make an offer they can’t refuse” to keep young talent in N. Ireland
  • admits that “ultimately the choice belongs to the individual”
  • yet, is asking FIFA/UEFA to come in heavy-handed to use regulatory powers to prevent young athletes from choosing the other side.

If FIFA/UEFA follows through intervene and impose, to regulate and micromanage every little aspect, the industry as a whole would resemble China under CCP leadership rather than a free market.

We already have a ‘passport regime’ prescribed by Sec. 7 of RSTP Reg. with ‘visa stamps’ by FIFA to authorize player’s club affiliation. What’s next? … If a player is artificially restricted in his/her choice of economic terms of employment, it’s no freedom – it’s slavery & total control. This practice is even more worrisome since young athletes are involved.

Without relying on open market forces to self-regulate the industry we will continue to witness these distortions in resource allocations. Football is over-regulated already. If anything, it needs more democracy to attract smart capital to the right corners of the industry, to empower best-managed clubs retain their best talent, and unleash the full potential of the industry.

#SportsDemocracy #freemarket #FanInvestors #FIFA #UEFA #Sports #Football #soccer #SportsD3 #SD3 #digitalassets #tokenization #DeFi

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