In the immediate rather than the long term, the Bosman case may have no effect at all on English football.

This is because the structures are in place in the UK to alleviate the injustice which Mr Bosman was seeking to correct.

Mr Bosman's main complaint was that his club, Lige, retained his registration, thereby refusing him a transfer but employed him on worse terms after his contract had expired.

The FA offers two options to which, apparently, Mr Bosman had no recourse in the Belgian Football Association.

First of all, if a player is offered reduced terms after his contract has expired, he becomes automatically a free agent in every sense of the word.

Secondly, the appeals tribunal will assess a fee post-contractually if two clubs cannot agree on it.

The Bosman circumstances are not replicated here and it is unlikely that a similar case could start here.You may well ask then, why all the fuss? Football's concern is that a satisfactory system which roughly satisfies the desires of all interested parties has been upset by Advocate-General Lenz who appears to have no knowledge or sensitivity for the game.

Fulham chairman Jimmy Hill, himself a past chairman of the Professional Footballers Association -- under whose stewardship freedom of contract was established in the pioneering George Eastham case -- is worried about the impact on the smaller clubs which depend on successful transfer dealing for survival.'The fact is', he commented, 'that transfer fees keep money in the game.

The fee goes to the club to pay wages and the upkeep of the ground; very few directors take remuneration.

Why develop a youth policy, a centre of excellence for youngsters, if at the end of the day only the player and not the club will benefit from the fee?'As Mr Hill rightly states, long contracts are not the answer.

Bristol City tried this when they were in the (then) first division and the creation of the appeals tribunal in 1978 made clubs concerned that a greatly reduced fee would be imposed after the expiry of the contract.

Bristol promptly descended two divisions and the 'Ashton Gate Seven', as the high earners were known, felt pressure to annul their contracts to allow the club to survive.

As Mr Hill says: 'A long-term contract is illogical.

Who knows how a player develops over five years, what injuries he has and how a club's form fluctuates?'The key question is whether a challenge to the present system will be made given that most are happy with it.

A player nearing the end of his contract according to the opinion of Advocate-General Lenz could at the end of his contract deal directly with a club seeking to acquire him, thereby bypassing the tribunal.

The football world is divided on the impact of this.Malcolm Macdonald, who was involved in two large transfer fees from Luton to Newcastle and from Newcastle to Arsenal in the 1970s, managed two clubs in the 1980s and is now based in Milan, views the Lenz opinion as 'catastrophic...''In the past one or two big internationals could cap their next transfer fee when signing for a club.

Now, it will be up to the clubs to negotiate a package that takes into consideration a player's ability to negotiate his own fee.

I cannot see many players agreeing to a long term contract so you lawyers will have to think up some very clever clauses to help protect the clubs.

The players will benefit, but the money won't stay in the game and there will be no trickle down to the small clubs.' Not all share Macdonald's apocalyptic view.

Bobby Keetch, who played for Fulham in the 1960s and is now a successful entrepreneur about to launch a global series of themed football restaurants, commented: 'Football clubs will have to work harder to look after their players and show genuine care as Fulham did in my time with Johnny Haynes.

Although he won no honours with Fulham, he was captain of England, felt well looked after and because of this other young players such as George Cohen and Alan Mullery and myself signed and served Fulham well.'For a director's view of the Bosman case, I consulted Douglas Alexiou, senior partner of Gordon Dadds and a director of Tottenham Hotspur FC for 15 years.

Did the case send shockwaves through the boardroom?'Not really.

We anticipated the interim ruling and I think it's correct law.

The market place will always find its own level and if clubs are desperate, they'll buy, irrespective of value at the end of the contract.

Only recently, QPR bought a forward in his 30s for over a £1m because they needed him.

Players and agents will get more but we are already seeing future fees being negotiated as part of a player's contract.

Most clubs have completed their building programmes in accordance with the Taylor report and in the future they should in theory have more funds available for player purchases.'The Advocate-General also supported removal of the restriction on 'foreigners'.

The position here is that the ruling body UEFA know that the 'foreigner' restriction is indefensible but the European Commission will only enforce if requested.

English clubs have latterly suffered as a result of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish players coming within the definition of foreigners.

It is rather a case of having our gateau and eating it, since in the same breath we want Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to preserve separate national teams but not their internationals to count as overseas players.

Will an English club break rank and field eight overseas players and then meet UEFA in the final leg in Luxembourg with Lenz in the middle of their defence? Entirely possible.