FIFA is confronted with a class-action right case on the transfer rules that claims of every professional football player who has played in the European Union or the Union since 2002 can include, according to the newly established Dutch Foundation behind the move.
The Amsterdam-based Justice for Players (JFP), launched on Monday, is the first group to try legal action against the administrative body of World Football using the Court of Justice for the ruling of the European Union (CJEU) in the Lassana Diarra case last October.
The former Chelsea, Arsenal and Real Madrid midfielder won his decade Legal fight against FIFA and the Belgian FA when the highest court ruled that some of the FIFA's regulations on the status and transfer of players (RSTP) were against the European competitive (pretext.
The case depended on a FIFA decision to pay Diarra € 10.5 million (£ 9.1 million/$ 12.1 million) and banned him for 15 months before violating his contract with the Russian side Lokomotiv Moscow in 2014 “without just reasons”.
The French International was blocked to join the Belgian side Charleroi during his period of suspension, because the RSTP regime forced the relevant national administrative body to withhold the international transfer certificate, a player must complete a cross-border movement and it also made the new club of the player “jointly liable” for the former club.
Diarra appealed against the FIFA ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but only succeeded in shaving some money from his fine, so he launched a counterclaim against the football institution in a Belgian court who eventually worked his way to the Cjeu, where he gave a victory which lawyers have since debated.
Some believe that it has questioned the entire transfer system and has opened FIFA for billions of euros and pounds in compensation, while others think that the impact of the pronunciation will be more limited because it challenges only two elements of the rules: how the compensation a club should appear when a player who is a member of the new club is decided, and the idea that is a club.
The founders of JFP are not surprising in the former camp and they believe that the FIFA instructions had an adverse effect on the salary of every professional player – male and feminine -. The logic here is that players simply did not exercise their rights to end contracts because the consequences were so heavy and uncertain, while clubs often torn deals, knowing that the system had been stacked in their favor.
With reference to “provisional analysis” by the Economic Consultancy Compass Lexecon, which also gave advice to the people behind the European Super League plan, JFP says that it believes that more than 100,000 players have lost about eight percent of their potential career income because of the illegal rules of FIFA.
The case against FIFA and the football federations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands will be submitted in the Dutch district court of Central Netherlands because the legislation of the country is most conducive to large class actions. And although for the time being it only FIFA and these five federations, more can be added later.
The board of JFP consists of two very experienced Dutch lawyers, Lucia Melcherts and Dolf Segaar, and former assistant manager of England and technical director of Tottenham Hotspur Franco Baldini. But it is also advised by Jean-Louis Dupont, the lawyer of Jean-Marc Bosman in perhaps the most important lawsuit in football history, because the players no longer gave the right to move without compensation in 1995.
The costs of the Class Action will be increased by Deminor, an international process financier who adopts cases in exchange for a reduction in the granted damage. According to JFP, this will be covered by 25 percent of any damage plus the costs of the procedure.
Current and former players are now encouraged to contact JFP via its website, JusticeforPlayers.com, with the case that starts in the first quarter of 2026. It will probably take at least three years before there is a statement.
FIFA has not yet responded to a request for comments, but the European Union FIFPRO Europe, which supported Diarra's case, has issued a statement that said that this is “the expected practical reaction” on the CJEU ruling and it acknowledges the fundamental law of players in the sporting industry in the sporting-industry-proofing in the sporting-industry-proceeding in the sporting industry formed “.
However, there was a touch of olive branch in its last paragraph, as the players' union said: “It remains committed to pursuing a constructive dialogue and cooperation solutions with relevant football and public authorities to protect the sustainability of football in the long term”.