It has been many years now that Lassana Diarra has been openly fighting FIFA after he was unable to sign for another club in 2014. The French midfielder decided to leave Lokomotiv Moscow unilaterally to sign for a Belgian team, suffering the punishment of not being able to play for a year. A ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union declared such rules illegal as they were considered contrary to the European Union’s legal system. Diarra is now claiming more than 65 million euros in damages from FIFA and the Belgian federation.
The ECJ ruling obliges FIFA to adapt its regulations on player transfers. FIFA has already announced its intention to open a global dialogue for possible changes. The new legal framework could lead to clubs paying more reasonable compensation rather than large sums for transfers, as well as not infringing the right to free movement.
The decision adopted unanimously by the FIFA Dispute Chamber included Thomas Grimm, Mario Gallavotri, Taku Nomiya, Jon Newman and John Bramhall, representing all football stakeholders, including the FIFPro union with the last two on the list. Bramhall was CEO of the English union (Professional Players Association) and Newman was General Council of the US union (MLS Players Association).
Now the vision of the players’ union has changed radically and surprisingly after what was said and voted in the past. “The ECJ ruled that some of FIFA’s transfer rules infringed EU principles on free movement of workers and competition law. The court reinforced the concept of freedom of movement and recognised that the transfer system prevented players from exercising their right to terminate their employment contracts without just cause, even though this right was in principle recognised in the regulations. FIFPRO understands that this confirms that players subject to these rules since 2001 have been harmed throughout their careers.”
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