The football season may have ended, but the debate on the governance of football is hotting up, not just with the Sheffield United’s legal challenge to the West Ham decision, but also with the preparation of the European Commission’s White Paper on sport. The latter is in response to the Independent Review of European Football, on which I served last year, and will be an indication of whether the Commission accepts the view that European law must be interpreted in a way which gives leeway to sporting authorities to organise their game appropriately, without falling foul of rules, such as those on economic competition policy, drawn up for other purposes.

UEFA’s home-grown player scheme, and the idea that all leagues should sell TV rights centrally with revenue distributed among all participating clubs, are two litmus test issues. The former could fall foul of a rigid interpretation of the EU’s principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality, while the latter could fall foul of EU competition law. Yet both are important if we want to avoid football being monopolised by just two or three clubs in each country.

UEFA’s new President, Michel Platini, is in Brussels this week and I am due to meet him. UEFA’s Briefing on the White Paper quotes a speech of mine to the Council of Europe Conference on Sports Governance last September in which I said, on the subject of home-grown players, that: “We have won this debate. The Independent Review endorsed UEFA's rules regarding the limitations of squad sizes and the requirement for a proportion of the players to be home-grown. We do not consider that these requirements are in violation of European competition law or the rule of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality. They are a proportionate response.”

But those opposed to some of these measures are also quoting me: Real Madrid’s consultant and lobbyist, Florian Muller, quotes my blog in the paper he has submitted to the Commission and the Parliament. Unfortunately, he is seeking to preserve the rights enjoyed by Real Madrid to sell its own TV rights individually, and thereby, with Barcelona, pocket most of the TV revenue engendered by the Spanish League.

He argues that there is no dominance of football at European level, as illustrated by the fact that no club has successfully defended the Champions League for the last two decades. True, but my point is that dominance is at national level, making more and more national leagues go the way of Scotland, with only two clubs ever winning it. The reasons are multiple (including the “jackpot” effect of qualifying for the Champions League, which gives the top clubs in each country revenues well above those of their competitors), but the individual selling of TV rights certainly accentuates the problem in Spain and Italy.

Leaked drafts of the Commission White Paper seem to show that they are being very cautious about taking on board all the ideas of the Independent Review. However, they do seem to recognize that the collective sale of TV rights is important, saying that “While in general, collective selling is incompatible with EU competition policy, it has been accepted by the Commission in certain cases in the area of sport. Collective selling is important for the redistribution of income and is thus a tool for achieving greater solidarity within sports.”

Let’s hope this remains there view when the final paper is published.