FIFA is under mounting legal pressure after a group of current and former footballers initiated a multibillion-pound compensation claim following a European Court of Justice (CJEU) ruling that deemed FIFA’s player transfer rules unlawful.
The Dutch-based organisation Justice for Players, which includes former England assistant manager Franco Baldini on its board, has formally announced plans to file a class action lawsuit against FIFA and five national football associations: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark.
The claim, to be submitted in the District Court of Midden Nederland, seeks damages for around 100,000 players who allegedly lost income due to restrictive transfer regulations enforced by FIFA since 2002. Dutch law enables the case to be filed on behalf of all players who worked within the EU and UK during that period.
Although England’s Football Association is not directly named as a defendant, it has reportedly received a pre-action notice and may be added to the lawsuit later. FIFA and the five targeted FAs have until September to respond.
The legal move stems from an October 2024 CJEU decision in the case of former Chelsea and France midfielder Lassana Diarra. FIFA had refused to issue an International Transfer Certificate (ITC) for Diarra to join Belgian club Charleroi in 2016, after ruling he had breached his contract with Lokomotiv Moscow two years prior. The CJEU ruled that FIFA’s transfer regulations violated EU competition law and workers’ right to free movement.
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Since the ruling, FIFA has updated its transfer rules, but these have not been accepted by the international players’ union Fifpro.
The Justice for Players foundation was formed this year specifically to launch this mass legal action. Notably, Diarra’s lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont—renowned for winning the historic Bosman ruling in 1995—is advising the case.
The estimated damages are based on research by economists at Compass Lexecon, which concluded that players may have earned approximately 8% more over their careers if FIFA’s regulations had not been unlawfully restrictive.
The CJEU judgment condemned several aspects of FIFA’s system, including:
- Unlawful criteria for determining compensation when a contract is breached.
- The ability of national federations to withhold a player’s ITC.
- Imposing financial liability on new clubs for unpaid compensation.
- Disciplinary sanctions against players and clubs involved in disputed transfers.
This case could have far-reaching implications for how player transfers are handled globally and may reshape the power dynamics in professional football.
