Soccer player unions and leagues in Europe go to Brussels with latest legal challenge against FIFA

In a busy soccer season when players have talked of going on strike, their union teamed up with domestic leagues to go to the European Union on Monday with a long-promised challenge to FIFA about how it adds new and bigger men’s competitions.

The European division of player union FIFPRO and the 33-nation European Leagues group filed a formal complaint on competition grounds, alleging FIFA fails to consult properly on decisions that are to its commercial benefit.

It is the latest dispute playing out in the legal arena, where FIFA has been pressured in the past year by rulings related to the European Super League, player agent regulations and — just this month — the global transfer market.

On the field, FIFA will launch a 32-team Club World Cup — including 12 from Europe — in the United States next June and July, and the 2026 World Cup, also in North America, will have 48 teams instead of 32 and last for one extra week.

FIFPRO said “the oversaturated international football calendar risks player safety and wellbeing,” and at a briefing played a video montage of Kylian Mbappé and star players talking about their increasing workload.

“You have so many competitions and we are happy to play but when it’s too much, it’s too much,” Mbappé said at an awards ceremony in May.

The France superstar is set to go to the Club World Cup with Real Madrid.

The complaint delivered Monday to the European Commission targets FIFA, which manages the calendar of protected dates for national-team games. Clubs must release players who are selected.

“The complainants are not seeking financial compensation from FIFA, but instead a fair and inclusive decision-making procedure,” their lawyer Mark English said, adding the EC was asked to make a “cease and desist” decision on FIFA breaking European competition law.

It does not cite European soccer body UEFA, which this season has committed hundreds of players to extra competitive games by expanding three of its men’s international competitions: the Champions League and Europa League for clubs, and the Nations League, which has a new playoffs system.

“We have some representation (at UEFA) and we use that,” English Premier League lawyer Mathieu Moreuil said, when asked why the European body was left off the complaint. “With FIFA we have literally nothing.”

Officials from leagues, clubs and unions once had a formal seat at the table with FIFA on its Football Stakeholder Committee. It was shut down in 2021 by president Gianni Infantino.

This season, Europe’s domestic leagues have had their fixture scheduling options squeezed by four extra midweeks from September through January now occupied by UEFA club competitions.

However, FIFA's new club event was compared by Belgian league CEO Lorin Parys as a threat, like the Super League plan by elite clubs defeated in 2021 by a fan-led backlash.

“Here comes FIFA through our back door whistling and yelling: ‘Surprise,’ saying: ‘We have got a present for you guys’, and it’s really the Super League under a different name,” Parys said.

The leagues’ grievance with FIFA is also in not being fully consulted during talks to agree the latest calendar renewal through 2030 for national-team games, which mostly force them to shut down lucrative weekend fixture slots.

FIFA has said its offers this year of talks were not taken up.

The complaint in Brussels, to the executive arm of the 27-nation EU bloc, also was joined by Spain’s La Liga and claims FIFA abuses its dominant position in soccer.

FIFA’s role, the complaint states, as governing body and regulator conflicts with its commercial objectives as a competition organizer.

FIFA previously suggested there was hypocrisy in European soccer, which sees clubs play lucrative offseason games worldwide, while it had a global duty to protect and develop the game.

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England's Jude Bellingham celebrates after scoring his side's first goal during the UEFA Nations League Group F soccer match between England and Greece at Wembley Stadium in London, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

President of FIFPRO Europe David Terrier speaks during a media conference on protecting player health and safeguarding the sustainability of national leagues at the Residence Palace in Brussels, on Monday, Oct. 14, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Panel members, from left to right, FIFPRO Europe president David Terrier, LaLiga president Javier Tebas, AIC resident Umberto Calcagno and Pro League CEO Lorin Parys participate in a media conference on protecting player health and safeguarding the sustainability of national leagues at the Residence Palace in Brussels, on Monday, Oct. 14, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Spain's Lamine Yamal, left, and Denmark's Victor Kristiansen battle for the ball during the UEFA Nations League group 4 soccer match between Spain and Denmark in Murcia, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)

Soccer player Kevin De Bruyne is shown on a large screen, as panel members, from left to right, NISO executive president Kristoffer Vatshaug, EPL director of international football relations, EU affairs Mathieu Moreuil, FIFPRO Europe president David Terrier, LaLiga president Javier Tebas and AIC resident Umberto Calcagno listen during a media conference on protecting player health and safeguarding the sustainability of national leagues at the Residence Palace in Brussels, on Monday, Oct. 14, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

The path for the NFL's Washington Commanders to return to the nation’s capital is clear after an on-again, off-again saga in Congress ended early Saturday with a postmidnight reprieve.

The U.S. Senate passed a resolution to transfer the land including old RFK Stadium from the federal government to the District of Columbia. The D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act passed by voice vote at roughly 1:15 a.m. after more than a year of lobbying and support from Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., district Mayor Muriel Bowser, Commanders controlling owner Josh Harris and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

“We are extremely grateful that our elected officials have come together on a bipartisan basis to give Washington, D.C., the opportunity to decide on the future of the RFK Stadium site," Harris said. "This bill will create an equal playing field so that all potential future locations for the home of the Washington Commanders can be fairly considered and give our franchise the opportunity to provide the best experience for all of our fans.”

The RFK Stadium land provision was part of Congress’ initial short-term spending bill Tuesday before it was torpedoed by President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the latter of whom amplified misinformation about the site on his social media platform X. Two versions of the House's slimmed-down bill, including the one that passed Friday night to avoid a government shutdown, did not include it.

Giving the local government control of the land for the next 99 years allows for the decaying husk of the old stadium to be torn down and the site redeveloped for any number of things. One of the possibilities is a football stadium and surrounding entertainment options at the franchise's former home.

“We appreciate the bipartisan group of Congressional leaders who made this important breakthrough possible,” the NFL said in a statement. “Washington, D.C., will now have a long-overdue seat at the table when it comes to the location of a new Commanders stadium.”

Bowser called it “a win for D.C., for our region and for America.”

“Everybody loves a good comeback story — and that’s D.C.’s story,” she said.

All that awaits is President Joe Biden's signature to become law, which could come as soon as Saturday. Comer went as far as saying that Senate passage of the bill is “a historic moment for our nation's capital.”

“If Congress failed to act today, this decaying land in Washington would continue to cost taxpayers a fortune to maintain,” he said. “Revitalizing this RFK Memorial Stadium site has been a top economic priority for the city. ... This bipartisan success is a testament to the House Oversight Committee’s unwavering effort to protect taxpayers and our full commitment to ensuring a capital that is prosperous for residents and visitors for generations to come.”

Playing in Washington again is no sure thing. The Commanders are also considering other places in the district, Maryland and Virginia to build a stadium in the coming years.

Their lease at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, runs through 2027. Harris called 2030 a “reasonable target” for a new stadium.

The team played at RFK Stadium 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) east of the Capitol from 1961-96 before moving to Maryland. Harris and several co-owners, including Mitch Rales and Mark Ein, grew up as Washington football fans during that era, which included the glory days of three Super Bowl championships from 1982-91.

Ein said on social media, “Still many steps to go and even bigger than a possible stadium last night’s bill was an extraordinary moment of bi-partisan and regional cooperation to do something big and important and get 174 acres of unused, blighted and critical land to DC so they can bring it back to life.”

Part of the way the provision got into the bill initially involved an agreement between the team and Maryland to tear down the current stadium in a timely fashion and redevelop the site with a project of equal economic impact, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press earlier this week on condition of anonymity because the deal was not being publicized.

After the Senate greenlit the RFK Stadium land transfer, Maryland Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, both Democrats, said they continued to believe their state's partnership with the team should continue long into the future.

“After working to level the financial playing field, and receiving assurances that should the team move they will redevelop the existing site in a manner that meets the needs of the community, tonight we supported the proposed land transfer legislation,” Cardin and Van Hollen said. "We have always supported the District’s effort to control its own land, and through regional discussions and cooperation, our concerns with this proposal have been addressed.”

The team has played games in Maryland since 1997 and practices in Ashburn, Virginia, not far from Dulles International Airport.

A return to the district would be another victory for Bowser, who on Thursday celebrated the start of an $800 million downtown arena renovation that is keeping the NBA's Wizards and NHL's Capitals in town. At that news conference, she took aim at Musk for sharing incorrect information on X, formerly Twitter, about taxpayers footing the bill for a new stadium.

The bill specifically prohibits the use of federal funds for a stadium on the site, “including training facilities, offices, and other structures necessary to support a stadium.”

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FILE - A vehicle pushes up pikes of snow after trucks dump their loads of snow in the parking lots of RFK Stadium in Washington, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)