BRUSSELS, June 11 - The European Commission is on a collision course with UEFA, other sports lawmakers and European Union governments as it finalises reforms on how sport should be run in its 27 member states.

The EU executive is due to unveil the proposals for new laws on July 4 and its findings could have a massive impact on the way soccer and other sports are governed throughout the EU.

Sports bodies such as UEFA, which governs European soccer, and diverse politicians have criticised a draft of a white paper as too vague on key points such as multibillion-euro television rights and nurturing young players, and potentially creating more court cases rather than less -- one of its chief aims.

Following a number of court cases in recent years in soccer and other sports, politicians and sports chiefs want more legal certainty from the strategy paper which will also cover areas such as doping, security, racism, gambling, players' agents and ownership.

Sport was given informal "specificity" -- or special exemption from EU rules -- by ministers under an EU treaty signed in Nice in 2000. But that status was not made legally binding.

The lack of definition has been central to many court challenges in recent years, most notably soccer's "Bosman ruling" in 1995 which gave all sports professionals within the EU more freedom to change clubs.

The politicians and sports organisations say they want the issue clarified once and for all, stress they are not seeking a full exemption from EU rules but want sporting criteria, such as benefits for society, to be weighed alongside economic issues.

In the United States, baseball has an exception to antitrust rules. But this exception is considered by most legal commentators to be an anomaly from a virtually obsolete court ruling and courts say the problem must be resolved by Congress.

KEY POINTS

The latest draft of EU proposals, obtained by Reuters, does not give sport's ruling bodies the extra powers they are seeking to tighten their grip on their sports.

Britain's sports minister, Richard Caborn, who launched the review during Britain's EU presidency in 2005, told Reuters: "The draft does not go far enough, we expected something more robust. It will leave sport in the hands of the courts."

The key points of dispute involve TV rights and rules for soccer and other sports that require a quota of local, "homegrown" players which are being introduced gradually.

Politicians and the major sports bodies wanted the paper to recommend central marketing and collective TV rights as the fairest model, rather than individual selling by clubs which allows the big names to dominate the revenues.

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