In an important case for the transfer rules of professional football, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled against world football's governing body FIFA.
The judges in Luxembourg ruled on Friday that several FIFA provisions violate the European Union's rules on the free movement of workers and competition law. According to experts, this could have far-reaching consequences for the multi-billion dollar transfer business in world football.
The ECJ ruled in the case of former French footballer Lassana Diarra, who had gone to court in Belgium. The Belgian judges referred the matter to the ECJ for further clarification and will now decide the 39-year-old's case on the basis of the Luxembourg decision.
Obstruction of international transfers
Diarra had left the Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow in a dispute in 2014, whereupon the club sued him and FIFA imposed a fine of more than ten million euros. In addition, every club that wanted to sign Diarra had to contribute to the fine - a deal for the midfielder with Belgian first division club Royal Charleroi fell through, leaving Diarra without a club in the meantime.
The ECJ has now ruled that the FIFA rules adopted by the national football associations can prevent the free movement of professional footballers. The rules would impose considerable legal, unforeseeable and potentially very high financial and sporting risks on the players and the clubs wishing to recruit them. Taken together, this was likely to hinder the international transfer of these players.
The ECJ ruled that restrictions on the free movement of professional footballers may be justified, for example to ensure the regularity of football competitions between clubs by maintaining a certain degree of consistency in the teams of professional football clubs. In Diarra's case, however, the rules appeared to go beyond this objective in several respects.
Restriction of competition
Furthermore, the ECJ ruled that the purpose of the contested rules with regard to competition law was to restrict or even prevent cross-border competition. It plays an important role in professional football that clubs sign players who have already been trained and thus enter into competition. Rules that restrict this type of competition would be similar to a non-solicitation agreement. In addition, such rules would appear to be unnecessary.
The concrete consequences of the decision are not yet foreseeable; the court responsible for the Diarra case in Mons, Belgium, will now interpret the ruling. However, it was already expected in advance that FIFA would have to change its rules in the event of a defeat and that a reorganization of the transfer market would be necessary.
The scale of the Diarra case had already been compared with the Bosman ruling published in 1995. At the time, Jean-Marc Bosman had argued that players should be allowed to move on a free transfer at the end of their contract.
SDA
