Eriksson's proposal snubbed

The technical director of Uefa, Andy Roxburgh, has played down the possibility of a shortened English league season, a proposal pushed by Sven Goran Eriksson.

The national coach has called for a winter break in the Premier League and placed part of the blame for England's fitness problems during last summer's World Cup on the long season.

"Everyone is of the opinion that the gap between the end of the domestic season and the World Cup was too short," Roxburgh said as a Uefa national coaches' conference ended in Brussels yesterday. He said he was sympathetic but offered no prospect of quick relief.

"At the same time you have to appreciate that tradition is always important, and in a place like England the tradition has been to play right through the season," he said. "But also there is business involved in the games and you must remember that."

Clubs will need a licence from Uefa if they want to compete in European competitions from the 2004-05 season.

"We are introducing soon a club licensing system. We are asking specific things from those clubs which want to take part in Europe," Per Ravn Omdal, Uefa vice-president said. "You have to fulfil a certain number of demands."

These include standards for stadiums, corporate governance, player development, communications and financial transparency. "Believe it or not there are many clubs in many countries that don't have an audited set of accounts," said Mike Lee, Uefa's director of communications.

The importance of auditing became a big issue after high- profile accounting scandals at Enron, Worldcom and other US firms hit the world's financial markets.

"We recognise that there are some issues about how football is run," Lee said. "Unfortunately, some clubs have not controlled their finances as they should, and that has been irrespective of whether the economy is good or bad.

"This is a mechanism to raise those standards. It's a way of encouraging greater stability. It's a way of improving governance in professional football. We don't envisage major problems, or major clubs being excluded," he said.

Small clubs that unexpectedly found themselves competing internationally would not immediately need to meet the same standards if they had a plan to bring their facilities and their finances into line within a short period.