2024-05-01 17:21:34
The CJEU’s decision will not be known until the end of summer. But if it followed these conclusions in what is called “the Lassana Diarra affair”, it could profoundly modify the transfer system, as during the Bosman affair in 1995. The ten-year-old file which concerns former Real Madrid and PSG player pits Diarra against one of his former clubs, Lokomotiv Moscow.
Hired for three seasons in 2013, the Frenchman denounced after a few months a drastic reduction in his salary without reason before the club terminated his contract, accusing the player of having refused to execute it “without just cause”. Considering itself wronged, the Moscow team demanded compensation of 20 million euros from Diarra, based on FIFA regulations.
The principle of co-debition in question
According to these regulations, if a player terminates his contract unilaterally and without just cause, he must pay compensation which includes his remuneration and benefits until the end of his contract. Sporting de Charleroi then tried to recruit the player but the transfer fell through, the Belgian club being afraid of having to pay part of this sum as co-debtor.
Diarra finally signed with Olympique de Marseille in 2015 while appealing to the commercial court of Mons, Belgium, supported by the players’ unions Fifpro and UNFP. Believing that FIFA prevented him from exercising his profession as a player in 2014-2015, he is demanding compensation of six million euros.
After several twists and turns, the Belgian justice system, whose jurisdiction FIFA contested, asked a so-called “prejudicial” question to the CJEU in 2022: is the regulation of the status and transfer of players compatible with the right to competition and free circulation of the European Union? And can a federation exert pressure by refusing to issue an international transfer certificate?
Even considering that the conclusions of an advocate general in no way bind the sovereign European Court of Justice – a decision expected in a few months – those signed by Maciej Szpunar give the advantage to @FIFPROto FIFPRO Europe and to @UNFP in their denunciation… pic.twitter.com/8rSnBIZ8zL
— UNFP (@UNFP) April 30, 2024
The opinion given by Polish prosecutor Maciej Spzpuna in a report published Tuesday supports the player. “These provisions [de la FIFA] are likely to discourage and dissuade clubs from hiring the player for fear of a financial risk. The sporting sanctions faced by the clubs hiring the player can effectively prevent a player from practicing his profession in a club located in another Member State,” wrote the Advocate General.
“Limiting the ability of clubs to recruit players necessarily affects competition between clubs in the market for the acquisition of professional players,” he continues. If the CJEU were to follow this opinion, players could, if they one day find themselves on the sidelines, terminate their contract with a club without fear of being legally stuck afterwards.
A first step towards a victory for the players’ unions. “It is this obstacle to freedom of work – in Europe, but also in the world – that we have denounced since the establishment, in 2001, of the new transfer system of Fifa, which has always refused to review its copy even though – and the international federation cannot ignore it – that many of its rules, starting with those which govern transfers, come in violation of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights”, reacts David Terrier, president of the Fifpro Europe and vice-president of the UNFP.
“It is now up to the judges of the European Court to decide. We await their verdict with the confidence that always inhabits those who want, in football as elsewhere, especially in football where some think themselves above the law, that the rights of all are fully respected. »
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