The first Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concluded in a report published on Tuesday that FIFA’s rules on transfers could conflict with competition and free movement of persons rules.
The “new” Bosman affair?
If the CJEU, whose decision is expected at the end of the summer after the judicial holidays, follows these conclusions in the so-called “Lassan Diarra affair”, especially the former Real Madrid player, it could profoundly modify the transfer system, as during the Bosman affair in 1995.
Players could actually, if they find themselves on the sidelines one day, end their contract with the club without having to worry about having to pay a severance fee and then being legally imprisoned.
Lassana Diarra in conflict with Lokomotiv Moscow
The affair pitted Diarra, a former 34-cap France international, against one of his former clubs, Lokomotiv Moscow, for a decade.
The Russian team terminated the player’s contract before it expired and demanded 20 million euros in compensation from him under FIFA regulations.
The club believed that the Frenchman, who challenged the “unjustified” pay cut, had refused to honor the said contract.
This request for compensation then dissuaded other clubs, notably Charleroi in Belgium, from recruiting the player, who ended up again at Olympique de Marseille a year later.
The player is demanding six million euros in compensation
Lassana Diarra, who is demanding compensation of six million euros for not allowing him to play in 2014 according to FIFA’s transfer rules, is supported by Belgian Jean-Louis Dupont in particular.
He is one of the lawyers behind the “Bosman Decision”, which ended quotas for foreign players at clubs in 1995, liberalizing the transfer market in Europe.