The English (PFA) and French (UNFP) professional footballers’ unions attacked Fifa in front of a Brussels court on Thursday to challenge the calendar “unilaterally set” by the world body, in particular its new Club World Cup in 2025.
The organizations “believe that these decisions violate the rights that players and their unions derive from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and that they also violate European competition law,” explains the UNFP in a press release.
With the support of the Fifpro Europe union, the UNFP and the PFA asked the Brussels commercial court to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union “by asking four preliminary questions”, i.e. -say by submitting their arguments relating to European law.
“The players and their unions have continued to emphasize that the current football calendar is overloaded and impractical,” recalls the UNFP. At the beginning of May, Fifpro and the World Association of Football Leagues had already threatened Fifa with legal proceedings.
The players’ representatives criticize Fifa for having “unilaterally pursued a program of expansion of competitions despite opposition from the unions”, in particular by expanding its Club World Cup from 7 to 32 teams, with a first edition scheduled for June 15 to July 13, 2025 in the United States.
“The most sought-after players are now part of a never-ending schedule of matches and competitions for their club and country, the limits of which are constantly being pushed,” laments Maheta Molango, the director general of the PFA, in a separate statement.
In detail, the two unions raise a possible violation by Fifa of the right of European workers to “collectively negotiate their conditions of employment, through their unions” and of their “right to working conditions that respect the health”, provided for by European texts.
Furthermore, they rely on the judgment rendered last December by the CJEU, in the Super League case, to consider that Fifa restricts competition law “in a discretionary manner”.
