Some of FIFA’s transfer rules clash with EU law, top court says

A set of existing FIFA rules on player transfers conflict with European Union legislation regarding competition and freedom of movement, the bloc’s top court said on Friday.

The European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) judgement concerns a case involving former France international Lassana Diarra, who legally challenged FIFA rules following a dispute with Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow dating back a decade ago.

Diarra argued that FIFA’s restrictions meant he was unable to find a new club once his four-year contract with Lokomotiv Moscow was terminated in 2013 after Diarra was unhappy with what he alleged were pay cuts.

Under FIFA rules, if a player terminates his contract without “just cause,” the player and any club wishing to sign him would potentially be jointly liable for paying compensation to, in this case, Lokomotiv Moscow.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport found the Russian club terminated the contract with Diarra “with just cause”, with Diarra ordered to pay €10.5 million.

Diarra argued his search for a new club was hampered by FIFA rules and sued the association along with the Belgian federation for damages, citing a deal with Belgian club Charleroi which fell through.

The ECJ, who took on the case after it went through Belgian courts, concluded that in Diarra’s case FIFA transfer regulations seemed to “go beyond what is necessary to pursue the objective.”

The ECJ slammed FIFA’s rulings, arguing they restricted and prevented cross-border competition between European clubs, concluding that the rules “place a general restriction” on competition by “immutably fixing the distribution of workers between the employers and in cloistering the markets.”

“The rules in question are such as to impede the free movement of professional footballers wishing to develop their activity by going to work for a new club,” the court said in statement.

The Diarra case, which is supported by the global players’ union FIFPro, went through FIFA judicial bodies before the 2016 election of FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

Infantino has since made it a priority to modernise transfer market rules.

While Diarra and Infantino have not yet commented on Friday’s ruling, FIFPro said on behalf of professional football players worldwide, “FIFPRO welcomes these findings”.

“The ECJ has just handed down a major ruling on the regulation of the labour market in football (and, more generally, in sport), which will change the landscape of professional football.”

However, the ruling could take a couple of years before any changes go into affect as it is part of a Belgian court case which is still ongoing.

FIFA said it would “analyse the decision in coordination with other stakeholders before commenting further.”