FAIR PUNISHMENT

Shear claimed the rule that restricts a player under contract with one club from talking to another amounts to restraint of trade and "harks back to the master and servant relationship of 100 years ago".

However, the European Commission are happy with the international transfer regulations after recent changes saw more protection for younger players. At the turn of the century the transfer system was explored in detail by the EC in conjunction with all the major football bodies and leagues. The EC recognised the stability of football depended on a transfer market that does not exist outside of sport and a trade-off for that was a transfer window system.

There is also an acceptance that footballers are not looked upon in the same way as those in non-sporting professions. A spokesperson said: "Sport is viewed differently and operates under different competitive rules as spelt out in the Nice declaration.

"Bosman was different. He fought for the release of a player once his contract had ended, but negotiating with other clubs during the term of a contract is a different matter.

"Few employees in non-sporting jobs would not be able to do their job because of a sprained ankle or hamstring strain. But contractual stability has to operate both ways. A player who cannot 'work' because he has a broken leg or is not 'working' very well and is dropped is still paid."

Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, is opposed to any relaxation of the current rules, believing they could endanger the fairness of the league.

"The rules are in place for the joint benefit of players and clubs in order to convince supporters that the competition is as fair as possible," he said.

"That's why we have deadlines and there are windows. It's there to try to prevent the biggest and strongest clubs being able to destabilise players of opposition clubs and rivals in a championship run-in. Even six months before the end of his contract, we wouldn't want one of our top players signing for another team if he is going to play against that team because it would give the paying public the wrong perception."

This is an idea Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck will explore, believing a "tweaking" of the rules is called for. Buck's plan would still not have enabled Chelsea to speak to Cole, who is under contract at Arsenal until 2007 and he will discuss it with his Premier League counterparts at an annual two-day get-together which started yesterday in Leicestershire.

Buck said: "We'll be in conversations with other clubs about the tapping-up rules. I think there are areas where the rule can be tweaked, although generally we agree with the rule and have to respect it. The one area I can think of - and it doesn't relate to the Ashley Cole situation - is whether in the last year of a contract, a player ought to be able to talk to other clubs without permission of his current club."

Mourinho expressed his displeasure at the verdict that saw him fined £200,000. "We are not happy," he said in the Portuguese sports daily A Bola. "Chelsea's legal department will continue to analyse the situation."

Mourinho initially denied he had met Cole, insisting he was in Milan but he said yesterday: "No one doubts there was a meeting between me, [chief executive] Peter Kenyon, Ashley Cole and his agent. But was it Chelsea that wanted a meeting to hire him or the player and his agent who wanted to meet with us to say that they would like to join Chelsea?"

The Football Association will examine the commission's findings before deciding if any action is to be taken against Cole's agent Jonathan Barnett. Any recommendations regarding Chelsea super-agent Pini Zahavi, also present at the Cole meeting, would be forwarded to the Israeli FA and FIFA.

Under FIFA regulations a licensed agent must not "approach a player who is under contract with a club with the aim of persuading him to terminate his contract prematurely".

Although Barnett and Zahavi were criticised in the commission's report, it remains to be seen whether they will be charged with breaking Article 14 ( c ) of FIFA's rules relating to agents.