Lassana Diarra: Verdict on transfer rules will ‘change the football landscape’, says players’ union

A court decision in favour of a player who challenged FIFA on transfer rules will “change the landscape of professional football”, the world players’ union FIFPRO has said.

Lassana Diarra, a former Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder, sued FIFA for damages in the Belgian courts, claiming two of its rules led to the collapse of a 2014 move to Belgian club Charleroi after the termination of his contract with Lokomotiv Moscow, which still had three years left to run.

The first rule states a new club will be jointly liable for compensation, alongside the player, to be paid to the former club when the player has terminated their contract without just cause.

The second allows the national association of the player’s former club to withhold an international transfer certificate (ITC) where there is a contract dispute.

Diarra’s lawyers argued the rules restricted a player’s freedom and were anti-competitive under EU law – and the European Court of Justice has agreed.

The court found while some of FIFA’s restrictions on player movements could be justified to regulate competition and ensure contractual stability in squads, it felt the two rules in question went “beyond what is necessary to pursue that objective”.

FIFA has downplayed the significance of the decision, saying it only puts two paragraphs of its rules into question, but FIFPRO believes it will have a profound effect.

FIFPRO said: “The European Court of Justice has ruled that a central part of the FIFA transfer system, in place since 2001, constitutes a restriction of competition by object and a violation of the free movement of workers.

“The ECJ has just handed down a major ruling on the regulation of the labour market in football […] which will change the landscape of professional football.”

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Diarra’s lawyer labelled the verdict a “total victory” for the former footballer.

In the run-up to today, the decision had been billed by some as the most significant since the Bosman ruling, a 1995 decision which effectively gave out-of-contract players complete freedom at the end of their contracts.