LONDON, October 5, 2024 – FIFA’s lawyer will almost certainly need to rewrite the small print in the world federation’s transfer regulations after a European Court of Justice ruling in the long-running case brought by Lassana Diarra.
The former Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain midfielder had walked out on Lokomotiv Moscow in 2014, incurring a suspension and €10m fine for breach of contract. However, a year later FIFA denied him the essential international transfer certificate when he sought to revive his career in Belgium with Charleroi.
The Belgian club insisted they owed Lokomotiv nothing by way of a FIFA-imposed compensation fee for the midfielder who played 34 times for France between 2007 and 2016. The move collapsed and he eventually joined Marseille before brief spells with Al Jazira in Qatar and PSG before retiring in February 2019.
Diarra then took up his legal action in the Belgian courts against FIFA. He is represented by Jean-Louis Dupont, the Belgian lawyer whose work brought about football’s revolutionary Bosman judgment in December 1995.
Some observers had suggested that the Diarra case would bring about a similar cataclysm although the European Court has long since validated football’s contract/transfer system as essential for maintaining stability within the structure of the professional and international game.
Certificate misuse
This was acknowledged by the European court in the Diarra case but it ruled that FIFA had been wrong in, essentially, using the issuance of an international transfer certificate as a punitive disciplinary measure.
Dupont said other players punished “by these illegal rules” could also sue for compensation and that the entire transfer system was threatened.
This was disputed by Emilio Garcia, FIFA’s chief legal and compliance officer.
He said: “FIFA is 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 regulations on the status and transfer of players, which the national court is now invited to consider.”
The European Court assessment now reverts to the Belgian courts for a verdict, including the contested issue of compensation. Considerations will include the fact that Diarra brought much of his problems on himself by walking out on Lokomotiv and thus placing himself in breach of contract.
ECA statement:
European Club Association (ECA), representing over 700 professional football clubs across Europe, takes note of the judgement issued today by the CJEU in the case concerning Lassana Diarra (“the Judgement”).
ECA acknowledges that the Judgement concluded that certain provisions of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (“RSTP”), whose aim are to ensure competition and contractual stability, appear to run counter to EU law, with the final decision now to be taken by the national court in Belgium.
Whilst the Judgement raises certain concerns, ECA observes that the provisions analysed by the CJEU relate to specific aspects of the FIFA RSTP, with the football player transfer system being built on the back of the entire regulatory framework set out in the FIFA RSTP which by and large remains valid.
More importantly, the CJEU did recognise the legitimacy of rules aiming at protecting the integrity and stability of competitions and the stability of squads, and rules which aim to support such legitimate objectives, including among others, the existence of registration windows, the principle that compensation is payable by anyone who breaches an employment contract and the imposition of sporting sanctions on parties that breach those contracts.
The football transfer system is designed to establish a balance between the rights of players to free movement and stability of contracts, together with the legitimate objectives of the integrity and stability of squads and competitions. ECA believes that this system functions well, on the whole, and succeeds in finding this necessary balance.
Crucially, the transfer system affords medium and smaller sized clubs the means to continue to compete at high levels of football, especially those who are able to develop and train players successfully.
The transfer system as a whole, and transfer fees and solidarity mechanism more specifically, are an efficient and effective means of wealth distribution from bigger clubs to smaller ones, including a huge number of ECA’s members, in addition to the strong system of competition revenue solidarity that is in place at European level.
Over the years, ECA has worked closely with FIFA and other key actors to improve the FIFA RSTP to further enhance its ability to serve football and adapt to emerging trends. We remain committed to pursuing this objective, even more so in light of today’s Judgement which will be further analysed together with our membership.
