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Hollway blasts football authorities

Last updated : 21 October 2010 By INOIT

Holloway believes the Bosman ruling of 1995, which allows players over the age of 24 to move for free at the end of their contracts, unfairly penalises clubs. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson this week confirmed Rooney has told the club he will not sign a new contract, meaning he can walk away for nothing when his current deal expires in the summer of 2012.

An impassioned Holloway said: "I've got big problems with the people who are running football. I know the reasons I think the game is in trouble and you cannot have a Bosman ruling they've got at the moment. Manchester United have helped Wayne Rooney's career massively on and off the field. The manager, the club itself has invested in him. They bought him for massive amounts of money as a young man and they're helping him blossom into the player that he is."

He added: "He's one of the best centre-forwards in the world. And if he sees his contract out he's going to be able to walk out of there for nothing. That's the people at the very top of the game's fault.

"Our rules were brilliant. If he was offered the same amount of money again, they could hold his registration and someone would have to pay the fair amount of money for him.

"Just because you're 24, what on earth has that got to do with it? It's just ludicrous. They have the power to change this straight away.

"What if he sits there for 18 months, throws tantrums, doesn't try, doesn't play, and someone's already said to him, 'We'll take you and we'll pay you some of that money we should have paid Manchester United because you can walk out on a free'?

"Do you want to sign a person like that? Do you want to play for a club that says that to you? How do we know it hasn't already happened? The game is wrong. The people in charge of the game are wrong. They are so wrong this is frightening.

"If Alex Ferguson is being bullied by a player and his agent, how wrong is the game? When are you (FIFA and UEFA) going to listen to the people who are involved in the game?

"They say it's not fair on the player. Rubbish. The player has had his wages every week. They bought him, they worked with him, he belongs to them. It's so obvious. The world should change if it's wrong and football should look at itself. "

Holloway feels hard done by:

The Blackpool manager complained after the 3-2 home defeat that Tevez was offside for his first goal and committed a foul against Ian Evatt in the build-up to his second. Holloway was also aggrieved that Gary Taylor-Fletcher had a "goal" disallowed by referee Phil Dowd in the second half with the scores level.

Holloway said: "The big decisions swung the game their way and Goliath has just walked off with all three points. David has been left to fill his slingshot. I wonder what the score would have been otherwise. I think David would have been happy and Goliath would have had a mark where we had hit him."

Blackpool carved out a number of good chances in the second half only for Tevez to make the breakthrough in the 67th minute. He got in front of Craig Cathcart to force the ball after substitute David Silva had played it across.

Holloway, serving a one-match touchline ban, saw his side equalise in the 78th minute with substitute Marlon Harewood guiding a header into the corner. The home side's celebrations lasted only a minute with Tevez regaining the lead for City. He nicked the ball of Evatt and rifled in a shot that took a deflection off Cathcart.

Silva added a glorious third in the 90th minute with a mazy run into the area before Taylor-Fletcher got a second for the home side in stoppage time.

Holloway added on Sky Sports: "He (Dowd) has got three massive decisions wrong, which cost my team against one of the so-called big teams. We could have been one point behind them if things had gone our way, as they clearly should have done.

"We're getting absolutely bo diddly squat, week in, week out. But there you go, such is life."

City manager Roberto Mancini was pleased to see his side climb onto the shoulders of Chelsea and believes they can still improve.

He said: "We are continuing to change our mentality and it was an important result for us. We worked hard in the first half and scored three goals in the second half which is not easy. Blackpool played very well."