Brussels, Oct 4 (EFE).- The European Union’s top court said Friday that some of Fifa’s rules on player transfers do not comply with EU laws.
The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) found that some of the world football governing body’s rules “hinder the free movement of players and competition between clubs.”
The ruling is the culmination of a long-running legal battle between former French international Lassana Diarra and Fifa.
Diarra had challenged Fifa’s rules after his contract with Lokomotiv Moscow was terminated in 2014 and he was blocked from joining Belgian club Royal Charleroi the following year.
Under Fifa’s rules, if a club considers that a player has ended their contract early “without just cause”, the player and any club looking to sign them are both liable for compensating the former club.
Fifa’s rules also stipulate that the new club could face sporting sanctions – including a ban on registering new players – and the player’s former club’s national association must refuse to issue a certificate approving the transfer as long as the dispute over the early termination of the contract is ongoing.
In its ruling, the CJEU said that it “holds that all of those rules are contrary to EU law,” as they “impede the free movement of professional footballers wishing to develop their activity by going to work for a new club.”
While the EU court acknowledged that certain restrictions on professional soccer players’ free movement were justified in order to protect the “regularity of interclub football competitions by maintaining a certain degree of stability in the player rosters of (…) football clubs,” the rules in this case “go beyond was it necessary to pursue that objective.”
The court also found that the rules in question are designed to restrict and prevent cross-border competition and “do not appear to be indispensable or necessary.”
In a statement, a Fifa spokesman said the organization was “satisfied that the legality of key principles of the transfer system have been reconfirmed in today’s ruling.”
“The ruling only puts in question two paragraphs of two articles of the Fifa regulations on the status and transfer of players, which the national court is now invited to consider.
“Fifa will analyze the decision in coordination with other stakeholders before commenting further,” the statement added.EFE
bru-ks