The Lassana Diarra affair begins a new situation on the football transfer market

Ct is an earthquake, the intensity of the aftershocks of which is still difficult to measure. On Friday October 4, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered a judgment declaring “opposites” to Community law certain rules of the International Football Federation (FIFA) governing the transfers of players and “nature hindering free movement” of these. Ultimately, this decision could allow professional players to unilaterally choose to terminate their contract with a club at the end of a season.

The case which led the CJEU to write this judgment began ten years ago. In 2014, former French international Lassana Diarra finished his first season at Lokomotiv Moscow. Disappointed with his performance, the club told him that it wanted to lower his salary. The defensive midfielder, who had signed up for four years, refuses and indicates his wish to leave the Russian team. Sporting de Charleroi (Belgium) then showed its interest in hiring Diarra. The Russian club then decided to terminate the player’s contract, considering that he had stopped honoring it without “just cause”.

Relying on FIFA regulations, Lokomotiv Moscow is also demanding compensation of 20 million euros – subsequently reduced to 10.5 million – from Lassana Diarra for the damage suffered. According to FIFA rules, a club hiring a player who has breached his contract in this way may be ordered to pay these costs jointly and receive sporting sanctions. This threat ended up discouraging Sporting de Charleroi from recruiting Lassana Diarra, who, following this episode, would remain without a club for a season before joining Olympique de Marseille in 2015.

“Unpredictable financial risks”

Supported by players’ unions – notably the National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP) and the International Federation of Professional Footballers’ Associations (FifPro) – Diarra took legal action in Belgium. It is in this context that the Mons Court of Appeal requested its clarification on the free movement of workers and competition law from the CJEU.

Friday October 4, the Court therefore rendered a decision whose interpretation by the Mons Court of Appeal will, in all likelihood, be favorable to the footballer. Considering that the terms imposed by FIFA “poses on these players and on the clubs wishing to hire them significant legal risks, unpredictable and potentially very high financial risks as well as major sporting risks, which, taken together, are likely to hinder the international transfer of players”the Court reaffirmed the possibility for professional footballers to unilaterally terminate their contract at the end of a season. And this in exchange for compensation paid to their employer, which the Court considers should be established proportionally and without taking into account the transfer compensation paid by the club to purchase the player. However, this is precisely what FIFA regulations provide for and impose today, according to criteria deemed “ imprecise and discretionary » by the Court. Result: no player unilaterally terminates his contract, which is, according to the CJEU, incompatible with EU law and the principle of free competition.

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