Soccer-EU top court says some FIFA player transfer rules breach EU law
Some FIFA rules on players seeking new club breach EU laws
Court ruling comes after Lassana Diarra sued FIFA
Ruling could lead other players to seek damages
Adds FIFA chief legal officer comment
By Julien Pretot
PARIS, Oct 4 (Reuters) -Some of FIFA's rules on player transfers go against European Union laws and free movement principles, the EU's top court said on Friday, in a ruling that could open the door for players to find a new club more easily after their contract is terminated.
FIFA's Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) say a player who terminates a contract before its term "without just cause" is liable to pay compensation to the club, and where the player joins a new club they will be jointly liable for payment of compensation.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), ruling on a high-profile case linked to former France player Lassana Diarra, stated these dispositions were unlawful, and the judgment is expected to prompt FIFA to revamp its transfer regulations.
"The rules in question are such as to impede the free movement of professional footballers wishing to develop their activity by going to work for a new club," said the Luxembourg-based CJEU.
"Those rules impose considerable legal risks, unforeseeable and potentially very high financial risks as well as major sporting risks on those players and clubs wishing to employ them which, taken together, are such as to impede international transfers of those players."
In 2014 Diarra left Lokomotiv Moscow one year into a four-year deal and the club took the matter to FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC), arguing he had breached the rules when his contract was terminated after the player decided to leave without just cause following a pay cut.
Diarra received an offer to join Belgian club Charleroi but the club backed out after FIFA refused to sign the International Transfer Certificate (ITC), preventing the player being registered with the Belgian federation.
According to the CJEU ruling, it is also unlawful to refuse to sign the ITC.
In 2015, FIFA ordered Diarra to pay 10 million euros ($11 million) in damages to Lokomotiv, prompting the former Chelsea, Arsenal and Real Madrid player to sue the world governing body and Belgian FA for damages before a local court.
The CJEU ruling could also lead other players affected by the FIFA regulations like Diarra was to also seek damages.
"All professional players have been affected by these illegal rules (in force since 2001) and can therefore now seek compensation for their losses," Diarra's lawyers Jean-Louis Dupont and Martin Hissel said in a statement.
FIFA'S AUTHORITY MAY BE IN QUESTION
Dupont said the whole transfer system would change with the court's ruling.
"FIFA's immunity is over, there will be a before and after in (football) governance after the EU (court) ruling," Dupont told Reuters.
Not quite, according to FIFA.
FIFA said it was "satisfied that the legality of key principles of the transfer system have been re-confirmed 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."
Its chief legal and compliance officer, Emilio Garcia, said it was not the end of FIFA's transfer system.
"It is important to clarify that today’s decision does not change the core principles of the transfer system at all," he said.
"FIFA has been continuously improving that system for many years – not for its own benefit, but for the benefit of players, clubs, leagues and member associations, to ensure that players can train, be developed and have stability, while safeguarding the integrity of competitions by implementing a robust regulatory framework for the international transfer system."
David Terrier, the president of FIFPRO Europe, said they were happy for Diarra but that he was not the only victim.
"The reality is we are going to see how to repair the damage for all the players who were victims of the (FIFA transfer) system," Terrier told Reuters.
REDUCED TRANSFER FEES?
The ruling could result in reduced transfer fees and more economic power for players, according to Ian Giles, the EMEA head of antitrust and competition at global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright.
"It's entirely possible this means players will feel they can now break contracts and sign on with new clubs, without the selling club being able to hold them or demand significant transfer fees," Giles said.
"But over time things will have to stabilise to allow clubs to remain economically viable. Smaller clubs who rely on transfer fees for talent they have developed may well be the losers in this context."
The European Club Association (ECA), which represents more than 700 clubs, was not immediately reachable for comment.
Reporting by Tassilo Hummel, Julien Pretot and Rohith Nair; Editing by Alex Richardson and Christian Radnedge
නවතම පුවත්
වියාචනය: XM Group සමාගම් ක්රියාත්මක කිරීම පමණක් වන සේවා සපයන අතර වෙබ් අඩවියේ හෝ වෙබ් අඩවිය හරහා ලබා ගත හැකි අන්තර්ගතය බැලීමට සහ/හෝ භාවිත කිරීමට පුද්ගලයෙකුට ඉඩ සලසමින් අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකම වෙත ප්රවේශය ලබා දෙන අතර වෙනස් කිරීමට හෝ පුළුල් කිරීමට අදහස් නොකරයි. එවැනි ප්රවේශය සහ භාවිතය සෑම විටම (i) නියමයන් සහ කොන්දේසි, (ii) අවදානම් අනතුරු ඇඟවීම් සහ (iii) සම්පූර්ණ වියාචනයට යටත් වේ. එබැවින් එවැනි අන්තර්ගතයක් සාමාන්ය තොරතුරුවලට වඩා වැඩි යමක් සපයා නොමැත. විශේෂයෙන්ම, අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකමේ අන්තර්ගතය පෙළඹවීමක් හෝ මූල්ය වෙළඳපොළවල කිසිදු ගනුදෙනුවක් සිදු කිරීමට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමක් නොවන බව කරුණාවෙන් සලකන්න. ඕනෑම මූල්ය වෙළඳපොළක වෙළඳාම් කිරීම ඔබේ ප්රාග්ධනයට සැලකිය යුතු අවදානමක් එක් කරයි.
අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකමේ ප්රකාශිත සියලු කරුණු අධ්යාපනික/තොරතුරුමය අරමුණු සඳහා පමණක් අදහස් කෙරෙන අතර මූල්ය, ආයෝජන බදු හෝ වෙළඳ උපදෙස් සහ නිර්දේශයන්; හෝ අපගේ වෙළඳ මිල පිළිබඳ වාර්තාවක්; හෝ ඕනෑම මූල්ය උපකරණයක ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමක් හෝ ඒ සඳහා පෙළඹවීමක්; හෝ විශේෂ ඉල්ලීමකින් තොරව ඔබ වෙත ලබා දෙන ලද මූල්ය ප්රවර්ධනයන් ලෙස නොසැලකිය යුතුය.
ඕනෑම තෙවන පාර්ශවීය අන්තර්ගතයක් මෙන්ම XM විසින් සකසන ලද අන්තර්ගතය එනම් අදහස්, පුවත්, පර්යේෂණ, විශ්ලේෂණ, මිල ගණන් සහ වෙනත් තොරතුරු හෝ මෙම වෙබ් අඩවියේ අන්තර්ගත තෙවන පාර්ශවීය වෙබ් අඩවි සඳහා සබැඳි සාමාන්ය වෙළඳපොළ විවරණයක් ලෙස "පවතින පරිදි" සපයා ඇති අතර එහි ආයෝජන උපදෙස් ඇතුළත් නොවේ. ඕනෑම අන්තර්ගතයක් ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණයක් ලෙස අර්ථ දක්වා ඇති ප්රමාණයට, ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණයේ ස්වාධීනත්වය ප්රවර්ධනය කිරීමට නිර්මාණය කර ඇති නෛතික අවශ්යතාවලට අනුකූලව අන්තර්ගතය සකසා නොමැති බවත් එලෙස අරමුණු කර නොමැති බවත් ඔබ සලකා පිළිගත යුතු අතර එබැවින් එය අදාළ නීති සහ රෙගුලාසි යටතේ අලෙවිකරණ සන්නිවේදනයක් ලෙස සලකනු ලැබේ. ඉහත සඳහන් තොරතුරු සලකා මෙතනින් ප්රවේශ විය හැකි, ස්වාධීන නොවන ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණ සහ අවදානම් අනතුරු ඇඟවීම පිළිබඳ අපගේ දැනුම්දීම ඔබ කියවා තේරුම් ගෙන ඇති බව සහතික කර ගන්න.
