Football’s world governing body is facing a growing number of issues, not least a new class action from the Netherlands
T
he tectonic tensions in the world of football produced a seismic tremor this week. News emerged from the Netherlands of a class action that promised to seek compensation for players whose careers – the case claimed – had been blighted by Fifa’s rules.
The scale of the action, undertaken by the group Justice For Players (JFP), is potentially vast: it holds that every active professional player, male or female, since 2002 could claim against Fifa for about 8% of their career earnings. Coming as a consequence of the European court of justice (CJEU) ruling on the Lassana Diarra case last year, the class action is considered exceptional by many in football because it has the potential to hit a governing body hard in the pocket. Should enough players and former players join, and were it to be successful, Fifa could be liable for a sum in the billions.
Whether that materialises is another matter. The Guardian has spoken to multiple figures within the game, including those close to the JFP action, who regard the likely outcome being one that ends in negotiation, with the hope of achieving substantial systemic changes. The Diarra judgment found that Fifa rules relating to the authorisation of transfers for players restricted freedom of movement, a key tenet of EU law, and that rules requiring buying clubs to cover the cost of compensation for a player who breaks a contract “without just cause” are anticompetitive. One aim for the group, therefore, could be a remedy known as “injunctive relief”, whereby a defendant must carry out a certain action, in this case such as making a set of agreed changes to the transfer rules, alongside paying damages.
