With the National Football League's (NFL) player draft set to take place, and with the outcome of the Indian Premier League's draft now on show in South Africa, centralist models of sport are clearly designed to ensure the maintenance of competitive balance. In the European Union, while we are still struggling to get to grips with freedom of movement in sport, one way to address issues in competitive balance might be to consider a draft in sports such as football. Could this ever work? With no real system of college sport, where would players for the draft come from? Would teams, clubs, governing bodies or a central agency such as the Union control and manage such a player allocation mechanism? How difficult would it be to secure the agreement of clubs like Manchester United and Real Madrid to consent to a democratising and balancing allocation of players across European football? How would any such draft work? Would it be the 'first pick' system or one of the other draft systems currently employed elsewhere in the sporting world? What possible outcomes might there be for European football if a widespread agreement could be reached that a draft is the best way forward for the sport? Or is the whole idea of a European football player draft completely nonsensical? And wouldn't it be set for failure once more until such time that the EU agrees upon the specificity of sport? But then, if F1, cricket et al. can change the way they have always done things, then why can't European football?
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