RUNNING a football club in the less glamorous lower reaches of the sport is never easy. Thanks to pesky interference from Europe, there is a very real danger that what is now difficult could become plain impossible.

A long-running and fiendishly complicated dispute in Europe could change the way football operates both in this country and on the Continent - and to the great detriment of smaller clubs such as York City.

A meeting in Europe today was expected to determine the future of the professional game, with the possibility of stark repercussions for the likes of the Minstermen.

The history of this dispute lies in employment law as it relates to the football transfer system. The European Commission insists the system as it stands is illegal because it breaches employment law set out in the Treaty of Rome.

The Commission believes that players should be able to terminate their contract when they wish and move to a club of their choice without the consent of their current club and with no transfer fee.

This would bring football into line with other forms of employment - something which might sound like a routine matter. Yet such a change could spell disaster for a club such as York City, largely because if rising star players were able to quit and move without a transfer fee, the club's cut in such a fee would go - hitting one of the most important sources of income for cash-strapped clubs.

This matter is a deep and thorny thicket involving heated arguments between the European Commission and the two most powerful men in football, FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his UEFA counterpart, Lennart Johansson.

It is vital that today's meeting finally comes up with a sensible compromise that preserves the nature of British football, while also doing nothing to harm clubs such as York City.

Updated: 11:27 Wednesday, February 14, 2001