- FIFA's transfer rules breached EU laws
- European Court of Justice rules in favour of Lassana Diarra
- FIFA launches global consultation to revise transfer system
FIFA has announced plans to initiate a global consultation regarding potential modifications to its transfer system after a court ruling indicated that some of its regulations violate European Union laws.
The European Court of Justice recently ruled in favor of former Chelsea and Arsenal midfielder Lassana Diarra, who had filed a lawsuit against FIFA seeking damages. The court determined that FIFA’s rules, which state that clubs are jointly liable to compensate a player’s former team when signing a free agent whose contract was terminated without just cause, are restrictive.
Diarra contended that these rules limited his freedom of movement after the termination of his contract with Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow in 2014, thereby breaching competition law. The court noted that FIFA’s refusal to issue Diarra an international transfer certificate (ITC) for a proposed transfer to Belgian club Charleroi in 2015 exemplified how these regulations “impede the free movement of professional footballers wishing to develop their activity by going to work for a new club.”
In response to the ruling, FIFA has announced a commitment to engage in a “global dialogue” with stakeholders in football as part of its effort to adapt existing rules. Emilio Garcia Silvero, FIFA’s chief legal and compliance officer, remarked, “FIFA sees the Diarra decision as an opportunity to keep modernising its regulatory framework, which has been one of the declared objectives of the FIFA president since 2016.”
Following the ruling, a FIFA spokesman expressed satisfaction that the legality of key principles of the transfer system had been reaffirmed.
