The football transfer system will be in the spotlight, and may be on the verge of collapse, on Friday, when the Court of Justice of the European Union issues its decision in the case of former France player Lassana Diarra against FIFA.
FIFA supervises the international player transfer system, which has been in place since 2001, and which sees hundreds of millions of dollars pumped annually.
But Diarra sued FIFA over the system before a Belgian court in 2017, saying that the rules prevented him from moving to another club after the Russian Lokomotiv Moscow terminated his contract.
FIFA rules stipulate that if a player violates the terms of his contract and his club terminates it, the new club will also be responsible with the player for paying compensation to his former club, which is what happened when Charleroi tried to sign Diarra when the Russian club terminated the contract in 2014.
FIFA refused to issue the international card, which prevented Charleroi from registering Diarra with the Belgian Federation.
In April 2015, the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber ordered the player to pay 10 million euros ($11 million) to the Russian club.
Since he was a free player, the Chamber obligated any club he moved to to contribute to paying compensation, and Diarra joined Olympique Marseille.
New rules
The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected Diarra's appeal against FIFA's decision, and the player sued FIFA and the Belgian Football Federation before a Belgian court for the damages he suffered, after clubs that were interested in signing him for the 2014-2015 season changed their inclusion due to the joint liability rule.
The Belgian court requested the advice of the European Court of Justice, and its decision could be devastating for FIFA if it adopts the recommendation of Attorney General Maciej Sponar to rule in favor of the player.
“Some of FIFA’s rules relating to the transfer of players may be in conflict with European Union laws,” he wrote in his non-binding recommendation. “The nature of these rules is restrictive and may only be justified in certain circumstances.”
Diarra, who ended his career with Paris Saint-Germain in 2019, is represented by Jean-Louis Dubo, the lawyer who took up the case of Belgian Jean-Marc Bosman, which paved the way in 1995 for players in the European Union to transfer to other clubs at the end of their contracts on a free basis.