Fifa's rules on the transfers of professional footballers break EU rules on free movement, Brussels' top court has said, in a verdict that could disrupt the European game's system of player sales between clubs. The European Court of Justice's decision comes after Lassana Diarra, a former French international player, challenged the rules in a 10-year dispute with his former club Lokomotiv Moscow. Diarra claimed his search for a new club was impeded by the rules of Fifa, football's governing body. The Diarra ruling is the latest in a string of ECJ judgments that have challenged the legal status quo in sport and could open the door to major changes in the multibillion-dollar transfer market that underpins professional football's economic model, analysts said.
... Diarra's lawyers said the ECJ ruling was a "total victory" for their client, and "paves the way for a modernisation of governance" in football, "in particular through collective bargaining between employees and employers". His legal team was led by Jean-Louis Dupont, the lawyer who successful challenged Fifa rules in 1995 on behalf of Belgian footballer Jean-Marc Bosman. That ECJ decision allowed players to move freely between clubs at the end of their contracts. Dupont also took on Uefa and Fifa over their handling of the breakaway European Super League.
