The governing boards of FIFPro and the European leagues, the organisation representing clubs from more than 30 European countries, decided to take legal action in July, so the decision did not come as a complete surprise to world football’s governing body.
Speaking at a press conference in the Belgian capital, the heads of the French, Italian and Norwegian players’ unions, sitting alongside representatives from the Belgian, English and Spanish leagues, explained that they were not trying to dethrone FIFA or claim damages.
The president of La Liga, Javier Tebas, a long-time critic of FIFA, agreed, saying that the unions and leagues were ‘clearly aligned on the protection of national competitions and their players’.
FIFA suffered another legal setback last week when some of its rules on the international transfer system were declared to be in breach of European Union competition law, following a nine-year legal battle brought by former player Lassana Diarra.
However, FIFA believes it can resolve all the issues raised in these cases and on Monday, at the same time as FIFPro and the European leagues lodged their complaint, it announced that it was opening a ‘global dialogue’ on its transfer rules following the Diarra ruling.
Football unions and leagues were already unhappy with FIFA’s unilateral decision to expand the men’s World Cup from 32 to 48 teams from 2026, but the spark that really lit the fuse was FIFA’s creation of a 32-team Club World Cup.
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While FIFA has yet to respond to the formal complaint lodged with the European Commission, it has repeatedly played down the impact of its new and expanded tournaments on players’ workloads, pointing out that it is responsible for only a small fraction of the total number of matches played each season. It has also said that it is the only football body to redistribute the money it earns to contribute to the global growth of the game.
