The European Union's top court said Friday that some FIFA rules on player transfers are contrary to European Union legislation relating to competition and freedom of movement, in a ruling that will likely lead to a shakeup of the soccer market's regulations and change the sport's economy.
The court's ruling came after former France international Lassana Diarra legally challenged FIFA rules following a dispute with a club dating back to a decade ago. Diarra argued that FIFA's restrictions meant he was unable to find a new club after his contract with Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow was terminated in 2014.
FIFA's rules state that if a player terminates his contract without “just cause," the player and any club wishing to sign him are jointly liable for paying compensation to the previous club.
“Those rules hinder the free movement of players and competition between clubs,” the court said in a statement. “The rules in question are such as to impede the free movement of professional footballers wishing to develop their activity by going to work for a new club.”
The ruling is seen as crucial because it could make it easier for players to terminate their contracts and join another team – potentially leading to a scenario where bigger clubs could more easily poach players from smaller rivals.
The global players’ union FIFPro, which had supported Diarra's case, said the ruling “will change the landscape of professional football.”
However, it could take a couple of years before any changes to the system go into effect as Friday’s ruling is part of a Belgian court case that is still ongoing.
FIFA said it would “analyze the decision in coordination with other stakeholders before commenting further.”
Diarra's lawyers called the ruling a “total victory” after a long-running legal battle.
Diarra had signed a four-year contract with Lokomotiv Moscow in 2013 but the deal was terminated a year later after Diarra was unhappy with alleged pay cuts. Lokomotiv Moscow applied to the FIFA dispute resolution chamber for compensation and the player submitted a counterclaim seeking compensation for unpaid wages.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favor of the Russian club and the player was ordered to pay 10.5 million euros ($11.2 million). Diarra claimed his search for a new club was hampered by FIFA's rules stipulating that any new side would be jointly responsible with him for paying compensation to Lokomotiv.
The former Real Madrid player also argued that a potential deal with Belgian club Charleroi fell through because of the FIFA rules, and sued FIFA and the Belgian federation at a Belgian court for damages and loss of earnings of six million euros ($7 million). With the lawsuit still going through Belgian courts, the case was referred to the European Court of Justice for guidance.
In Friday's ruling, the court added that current rules “impose considerable legal risks, unforeseeable and potentially very high financial risks as well as major sporting risks on those players and clubs wishing to employ them which, taken together, are such as to impede international transfers of those players.”
It was not immediately clear what impact the ruling will have on players and leagues more broadly, but some analysts have compared it to the ECJ’s 1995 decision on Belgian footballer Jean-Marc Bosman.
That ruling removed restrictions placed on foreign EU players within national leagues and allowed players in the bloc to move to another club for free when their contracts ended.
That ruling ultimately skewed the player trading market in favor of wealthier clubs in western Europe who could lure free agents with big salaries and avoided paying transfer fees that many smaller clubs relied on.
If FIFA introduces rules making it easier for player to terminate their contracts and join new clubs when they want, the whole system of transfers largely based on transfer fees could be challenged, with clubs less tempted to invest millions in players with more freedom to leave.
But it could also give more power to the richest clubs capable of luring players with gigantic salary offers.
“All professional players have been affected by these illegal rules and can therefore now seek compensation for their losses,” Diarra's lawyers claimed in a statement.
Although the court said FIFA transfer regulations can help maintain a form of stability within professional squads and help guarantee the regularity of competitions, it insisted that in Diarra’s case “the rules in question nevertheless seem, subject to verification (by the Belgian court of appeal) in a number of respects, to go beyond what is necessary to pursue that objective.”
The Diarra case went through FIFA judicial bodies before the 2016 election of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who has made it a priority to modernize transfer market rules. During the progress of the Diarra case, FIFA indicated it is open to a wide-ranging consultation with unions, clubs and leagues to address the courts’ opinions.
FIFA said the ruling “only puts in question two paragraphs of two articles of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, which the national court is now invited to consider.”
Concerning competition rules, the court slammed FIFA's rulings for restricting and preventing cross-border competition between European clubs.
“The Court recalls that the possibility of competing by recruiting trained players plays an essential role in the professional football sector and that rules which place a general restriction on that form of competition, by immutably fixing the distribution of workers between the employers and in cloistering the markets, are similar to a no-poach agreement," it said.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Graham Dunbar in Geneva and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.
FILE - In this file photo dated Friday, Sept. 14, 2018, Paris-Saint-Germain player Lassana Diarra during a French League One soccer match against Saint-Etienne at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
An Israeli airstrike has cut off a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria, leaving two huge craters on either side of the road.
The airstrike Friday rendered the road unusable for cars, leaving people to go on foot to the Masnaa Border Crossing where tens of thousands of people fleeing war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria over the past two weeks.
On Tuesday, Israel began a ground incursion into Lebanon against the Hezbollah militant group while also conducting strikes in Gaza. The Israeli military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since then, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Here is the latest:
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Friday that a strike in Beirut the day before killed Mohammed Skafi, the head of Hezbollah’s communications division.
The military said in a statement that Skafi was “a senior Hezbollah terrorist who was responsible for the communications unit since 2000” and was “closely affiliated” with high-up Hezbollah officials.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department says some 350 American citizens, green card holders and family members have now left Lebanon on US-organized contract flights this week.
The department announced the new number — up by about 100 since Thursday — after another flight from Beirut landed early Friday in Frankfurt, Germany. The flight had the capacity to carry 300 passengers but only 97 people were aboard, it said.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Thursday that the U.S. would continue to organize such flights as long as the security situation in Lebanon is dire and as long as there is demand.
More than 6,000 American citizens have contacted the U.S. embassy in Beirut seeking information about departing the country over the past week since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated. Miller said the department understood that some Americans, many of them dual U.S.-Lebanese nationals and long-time residents of the country, may choose to stay.
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the country’s recent missile strike on Israel, state TV reported Friday.
Khamenei was leading Friday prayers and was to deliver a rare public sermon in the Iranian capital, Tehran, that was being watched for signs of what Iran might plan next.
In a 40-minute speech, he praised Tuesday's missile barrage against Israel as a shining job by Iranian armed forces. “It will be done in the future again if it becomes necessary,” he said.
There was a commemoration ceremony for the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah beforehand. Most high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and the Revolutionary Guard’s top generals, attended the ceremony.
Iran is Hezbollah’s main backer and has sent weapons and billions of dollars to the group over the years.
Also on Friday, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Beirut, where he was expected to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah with Lebanese officials. Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Iran sent its first shipment of aid to Lebanon, including 10 tons of food and medicine.
TOKYO — As Japan prepared to evacuate its citizens from Lebanon, the government also urged those in Iran to leave as soon as possible, while commercial flights are still operating.
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters Friday that Japan’s embassy in Iran renewed its safety advisory to Japanese nationals this week after Iran fired missiles into Israel.
On Thursday, the Japanese Defense Ministry dispatched two C-2 transport aircraft to Jordan to stand by for an evacuation of about 50 Japanese nationals from Lebanon. Iwaya said the government has not decided whether to also dispatch defense aircraft to Iran, where about 440 Japanese citizens are based, but “we will do our utmost so that we can respond to any contingency in order to protect the safety of Japanese citizens.”
BEIRUT — Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Beirut where he will discuss with Lebanese officials the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Iran is the main backer of Hezbollah and has sent weapons and billions of dollars to the group over the years.
The Iranian official arrived in Lebanon as Israel launched new airstrikes on different parts of Lebanon, including Beirut’s southern suburb, south Lebanon, and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Araghchi’s visit to Beirut came after Iran launched at least 180 missiles Tuesday into Israel, part of a series of rapidly escalating attacks that threaten to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide war.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency says an Israeli airstrike has cut a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria.
The agency gave no further details about Friday’s airstrike that led to the closure of a road near the Masnaa Border Crossing, from where tens of thousands of people fleeing war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria over the past two weeks. It’s the first time this major border crossing has been cut off since the beginning of the war.
Lebanese General Security recorded more than 250,000 Syrian citizens and over 80,000 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syrian territory during the last week of September, after Israel launched a heavy bombardment of southern and eastern Lebanon.
Dama Post, a pro-government Syrian media outlet, said Israeli warplanes fired two missiles and damaged the road between Masnaa Border Crossing in Lebanon and the Syrian crossing point of Jdeidet Yabous.
There are half a dozen border crossings between the two countries and most of them remain open. Lebanon’s minister of public works said all border crossings between Lebanon and Syria work under the supervision of the state.
Hezbollah is believed to have received much of its weapons from Iran via Syria. The Lebanese group has a presence on both sides of the border where it fights alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
SYDNEY — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday condemned the Iranian ambassador’s comments praising a recently slain Hezbollah leader, but rejected opposition advice to expel the envoy.
Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi described Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by an Israeli missile strike in September in Lebanon, as a “remarkable leader" on social media.
“The government condemns any support for terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah. We condemn the ambassador’s comments,” Albanese told reporters in Sydney.
“Australia has maintained a relationship with Iran since 1968 that has been continuous. Not because we agree with the regime, but because it’s in Australia’s national interest,” Albanese added.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who could become prime minister at elections due by May, called for Sadeghi to be expelled over his post. Dutton described Sadeghi’s words as “completely and utterly at odds with what is in our country’s best interests.”
Sadeghi did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Australia officially rebuked Sadeghi in August for endorsing Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin’s hope that “wiping out the Zionist plague out of the holy lands of Palestine happens no later than 2027."
A damaged is seen inside a car repair shop that was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
In this photo released by Iranian Foreign Ministry, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, is welcomed by a group of officials upon arrival at Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP)
In this photo released by Iranian Foreign Ministry, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi steps out of his plane upon arrival at Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP)
Residents run for cover following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati during their meeting in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A man runs for cover as a smoke raises in the background following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Flames rise from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Lebanese citizen Ali Zeineddine, left, greets his brother Hussein arriving from Lebanon, after an Israeli air strike killed various members of their family, at Sao Paulo International airport, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Flames rise from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A volunteer of the Russian Cultural Center entertains displaced children at a school in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Flames and smoke rise from a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, as Rafik Hariri International airport is seen in the background, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Lebanese citizen Ali Zeineddine, third from left, waits with family for his brother arriving from Lebanon at Sao Paulo International airport, after an Israeli air strike killed various members of their family, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Flames and smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A Hezbollah paramedic walks between debris after an airstrike hit an apartment in a multistory building, in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
