With the Lassana Diarra affair, the whole of international football could be turned upside down.
A former French international who played for PSG and OM, Lassana Diarra was an excellent midfielder during his football career. His time at OM was marked by a blank year due to a contract conflict with his former club Lokomotiv Moscow. After several years of a very long case, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered a long-awaited decision this Friday, October 4. The Court of Justice declared that FIFA’s rules on player transfers breached European Union law. ” The rules in question are likely to hinder the free movement of professional footballers wishing to develop their activity by going to work in a new club.” CCertain FIFA rules governing transfers between clubs are “contrary” to European Union law and “likely to hinder the free movement” of professional footballers. The court considers in fact that they “impose on these players and on the clubs wishing to hire them significant legal risks, unpredictable and potentially very high financial risks as well as major sporting risks, which, taken together, are likely to hinder the international transfer of players“These same contentious rules.”are intended to restrict, or even prevent, cross-border competition in which all professional football clubs established in the Union could engage“.”The ability to compete by recruiting already trained players plays an essential role in this sector“, adds the Court of Luxembourg in its judgment.
“For Lassana Diarra, who dared to challenge the all-powerful FIFA (and incidentally the Belgian football federation) and who has been waging a legal battle for 10 years (with the support of FIFPRO, FIFPRO Europe and the UNFP these last 3 years), it’s a total victory” launched his lawyers.
Explanations of the case
Let us first return to the basics of this dispute. In 2014, Lassana Diarra wanted to leave his club as regularly happens for professional players, but was blocked by his club at the time, Lokomotiv Moscow. Problem, the Frenchman must submit to the regulations on the status and transfer of players (RSTJ) issued by FIFA. In detail and in simple words, a footballer is simply unable to leave a club where he is engaged, unless he pays his remuneration until the scheduled end of the contract. Any club seeking to hire him may be jointly ordered to pay this remuneration, as well as various costs. The recruiting club is also exposed to sporting sanctions which can go as far as a ban on recruitment…
Therefore, it is difficult for a player to leave that club in question and for those who wish to have the player, it can doom entire seasons. If for some this seems like an injustice, it is quite simply what allows clubs to carry out financial operations to sell players. If the conflict is important, the players are put in what we called a loft like Kylian Mbappé not so long ago with PSG when he refused to extend. Dissatisfied, Lassana Diarra therefore launched a long legal battle against this regulation and Fifa which will therefore last almost 10 years.