ZURICH — The global football players’ union expressed its disagreement on Monday with FIFA’s temporary changes to transfer rules following the historic Lassana Diarra ruling.
Former France international Diarra challenged FIFA rules over a dispute with a club dating back to 2014, and the European Court of Justice ruled in October that some rules were contrary to European Union law because they restricted freedom of movement and were anti-competitive.
FIFA then opened a “global dialogue” and published interim amendments on Monday which will come into force in time for the January transfer window. They “reach a balanced compromise,” FIFA said in a statement.
But the global players’ union, FIFPRO, opposed the changes and accused FIFA of failing to reach consensus.
“Following the success of Lassana Diarra against the legality of Article 17 of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, FIFPRO informed FIFA of the conditions under which it could negotiate amendments to the regulations to reflect the decision “, indicates a press release from the union. .
“So far we have failed to reach consensus. We do not agree with the temporary measures announced by FIFA and which were introduced without a genuine collective bargaining process.
“These measures do not provide legal certainty to professional footballers and do not reflect the ruling of the European Court of Justice.”
FIFA said there was “a clear understanding” between all parties that the interim measures have no impact on ongoing discussions on long-term rule changes, and introduced interim changes to provide stability and certainty for the next transfer window.
“FIFA looks forward to continuing its close cooperation with key stakeholders as part of the global dialogue launched in October with the aim of developing a robust, transparent, non-discriminatory, objective and proportionate regulatory framework that will apply uniformly to professional football on a global level,” he said in a statement.
FIFA Legal Director, Emilio Garcia Silvero posted on Monday, saying the next goal was to have “a permanent framework that fully aligns with the views of the ECJ and has the support of all parties before July 2025.”
Diarra took his case to the ECJ after suing FIFA for damages in the Belgian courts. Diarra cited FIFA rules for the failure of a transfer to Belgian club Charleroi after his contract with Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow was terminated in 2014.
