Suche
ECJ judgment threatens Bavaria: class action could revolutionize football!
FC Bayern expresses concerns about the class action lawsuit, which affects up to 100,000 players and could endanger football safety.
ECJ judgment threatens Bavaria: class action could revolutionize football!
Today, international football is faced with an explosive challenge. A class action lawsuit by a Dutch organization aims to recover more than a billion euros from major football associations, including FIFA and DFB. This lawsuit could have far-reaching consequences for around 100,000 players who have been active in the European Union since 2002 or in Great Britain and Northern Ireland until Brexit. The background to this legal dispute is a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) from 2024, which declared certain FIFA regulations to be illegal. [Sport1] reports that the focus is particularly on the contractual conditions of players who are currently bound to their contracts and cannot terminate them on time.
Significant effects for the football scene
In particular, the case of former French international Lassana Diarra continues to attract attention. Diarra left Lokomotiv Moscow in 2014 after just one year and sued the club for unpaid wages and FIFA for €65 million in damages after being fined €10 million by a FIFA arbitration tribunal. [Deutschlandfunk] emphasizes that in its decision the ECJ sees the FIFA regulations as problematic because they violate the free movement of workers and competition between clubs.
It is important that these legal developments go far beyond the individual case Diarra. Bayern board member Jan-Christian Dreesen expressed concerns about the impending changes for contract and planning security in football. He sees the "statics of football" in danger, especially for small and medium -sized clubs that depend heavily on the transfer fees. Dreesen assesses the chances of success of the class action as "rather low", but sees a wave of changes to the European transfer market.
Possible regulations of the transfer regulations
The ECJ judgment could lead to players being able to terminate their contracts on time in the future, which was not yet allowed. Clubs could see themselves forced to move players to the termination of the contract, which was not possible in view of the previous regulations. These potential changes could change the dynamics on the transfer market from scratch. FIFA chief Emilio Garcia Silvero has already announced that there will be discussions about adjustments to the transfer regulations to ensure compliance with EU laws.
In a further context, the legal disputes also affect the so -called HomeGrown Players Rules. These regulations provide for clubs to have a minimum number of locally trained players in the squad. It remains uncertain whether these regulations can continue to exist, since they have already met with legal concerns in the past. [Sportsbusiness] notes that every change in the HomeGrown player regulations must be carefully evaluated, as this can have massive effects on the youth work and squad planning of the clubs.
One thing is certain: football is facing a groundbreaking change that could have very different effects on both players and clubs. Many will be following the developments with interest because “there is something happening” in beautiful Kölle and beyond.