AC Milan's Champions League final victory over Liverpool on Wednesday left a bitter-sweet taste among many of European soccer's top officials who believe it should never have been in the competition in the first place.

For Milan's 2-1 win in Athens brings the spotlight back on to a deeper problem that soccer, and sport in general, is currently having to live with on an almost daily basis: the fear of court action which can erode the power of ruling sporting bodies.

According to senior officials at European soccer's governing body if Milan's match-fixing indiscretions were fast-forwarded by 12 months, it would not be admitted to the prestigious competition next season.

Milan was deducted points for its involvement in the Italian match-rigging scandal and lost its automatic place for the competition.

But it was handed a slot in the qualifiers by UEFA because UEFA decided it had "insufficient legal basis in the regulations" to deny Milan a place, much as it would clearly have liked to. Since then the governing body has amended its rules in a bid to allow it to decide who should and who shouldn't be allowed enter its own competitions.

"If these new statutes had been in place, Milan would most likely have been denied entry on sporting grounds," a UEFA official explained.

"Unfortunately at the time, our lawyers told us that we would not win the case, should Milan appeal the decision."

But even though the new UEFA rules are in place, the Swiss-based body still cannot be 100 percent assured of preventing a club entering its competitions, pointing to a question now being asked by UEFA and many other sports officials in general - who is in charge?

The Milan case also points to the urgency and importance of next month's European Commission paper on the future of sport, which will propose a strategy for how sport should be run across the European Union.

Last year Milan would have been free to take its chances with an appeal in the civil courts which, if it had won, would have forced UEFA to reverse its decision.

Whether it can do so in the future remains an issue at the moment. If it goes to court, UEFA could well follow it in with a counter case. UEFA does not want to go down that route but knows that if clubs feel it can challenge a ruling it will.

The issue does not just concern Milan. What would have happened if West Ham United, for example, had qualified for Europe through its league position in England after being found guilty of inconsistencies in its handling of the Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano transfers.

"The Premier League found them guilty, but didn't deduct points. However, if we (UEFA) wanted to still stop them entering on sporting grounds, they would most likely go to court and plead a restriction of trade," the official said.

"West Ham could base their case on the precedence of the Premier League decision, despite the fact that these are UEFA competitions, run by UEFA and so UEFA should be able to decide who enters."

Sporting bodies, such as UEFA and FIFA, are seeking for a dispensation from regular EU rules, citing sport as a social movement, rather than a business model.

In other words, UEFA and FIFA believe they should be allowed to run soccer as they see fit. It makes sense to them as it does to most fans. They hope Europe's lawmakers see it that way too.

(Shanghai Daily May 26, 2007)