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FIFA is facing a multi-billion pound claim for compensation from a group of former players, following a ruling last year by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that its transfer rules are illegal. The Justice for Players Foundation, a Dutch group that has former England assistant manager Franco Baldini on its board, has announced its intention to file a class action lawsuit against FIFA and the football associations of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.
The organization "Justice for Players" is seeking compensation on behalf of players who have lost income due to FIFA's transfer rules since 2002. It says the legal case will involve around 100,000 players.
The lawsuit will be filed in the district court of Midden Nederland, where the Netherlands has been chosen as jurisdiction because Dutch law allows claims from anyone who has worked within the European Union and the United Kingdom.
It is understood the Football Association received a copy of the letter before taking action. Although it has not been named as a defendant, it could be added later. FIFA and the five domestic football federations have been given until September to respond.
The compensation claim is the result of the ECJ's ruling last October in the case brought by former Chelsea and France midfielder Lassana Diarra, who sued FIFA after the world governing body refused to issue him an international transfer certificate (ITC) to join Belgian club Charleroi in 2016, after it was found that he had breached his contract with Lokomotiv Moscow two years earlier.
FIFA fined Diarra €10.5 million and banned him from football for 15 months for breaching his contract, in a decision upheld on appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. After blocking his registration with Charleroi, FIFA faced a counter-claim from Diarra, with the Court of Justice of the EU ruling that its transfer regulations were unlawful.
The ECJ ruled that FIFA's regulations on the status and transfer of players violated EU competition law and the right to free movement of workers. FIFA has changed its transfer regulations, although the new rules have not been accepted by the international players' union, Fifpro.
The "Justice for Players" Foundation was created this year with the aim of filing a massive legal lawsuit.
Diarrës' lawyer, Jean-Louis Dupont, who won the historic case at the ECJ on behalf of Jean-Marc Bosman that established the principle of free movement for players without a contract, in 1995, is advising the organization "Justice for Players".
The legal letter sent to FIFA refers to the class action as a multi-billion dollar claim. This figure is understood to be based on independent analysis by economists at Compass Lexecon, who have estimated that players would have earned around 8% more over their careers since 2002 if FIFA's transfer regulations had not been unlawfully restrictive.
The ECJ ruling ruled that FIFA regulations restricted free movement by establishing unlawful criteria for determining the compensation to be paid by a player who breaches his contract, by allowing the national federation of a former club to retain a player's ITC, by making the player's new club liable for the compensation to be paid to the former club, and by allowing FIFA to impose disciplinary sanctions on the player and his new club.
FIFA has been contacted for comment. / Adapted from The Guardian/
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