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The G14 grouping of elite clubs has once again clashed with Michel Platini's UEFA as it urged the European Union to force football into line with other European businesses.
The G14 - a grouping of 18 of Europe's most powerful and profitable clubs - has hit out once more at UEFA supremo Michel Platini (pictured) in correspondence with the European Union.

One month ago, Platini wrote to the EU himself, pleading with the supranational organisation to more heavily regulate foreign ownership of major football clubs.

His letter also touched on community issues such as racism, but the "distortion" of football by mega-rich club owners was the main thrust of the piece.

Inevitably, the G14 - representing more than a couple of football's big-money supremos - has hit back.

The organisation first of all insisted that Platini's call for football to be considered 'unique' by the European Union be ignored.

As things stand, European football is not bound by the EU's laws pertaining to free agency for workers, with football contracts even in the post-Bosman age being very much different to those in other professions.

What's more, competition law seems to barely exist in the footballing world.

The G14 seems to be against these unique aspects of the game. The Associated Press printed an excerpt of the letter:

"The position of the international federations appears to violate a founding principle of European democracy, namely that all are equal before the law.

"... By definition, this fundamental principle should not tolerate exceptions."

The letter went on to proclaim that UEFA and FIFA could not be considered arbiters of what was truly good for the game or its clubs.

"They are private entities often based outside the EU and who, in addition to their regulatory activity, are ever-growing, major commercial actors in the fields they regulate," ran the text.

(Of course, UEFA's complaints about the G14 are in some respects quite similar - that private individuals are exerting undue control over the game.)

The European Union, being the complex institution that it is, has yet to present a united front on the issue, but Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister, has already given Platini short shrift. What he makes of the G14's input remains to be seen.