FIFA ТО OVERHAUL TRANSFER RULE

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FIFA is stepping into negotiations with key figures in football after a game-changing ruling from the European Union deemed parts of its transfer system illegal.

In response, the glob­al soc­cer author­i­ty announced on Mon­day it’s ready to tack­le the issue head-on.

“In the com­ing days, FIFA will reach out to stake­hold­ers for their input on Arti­cle 17 of the Reg­u­la­tions on the Sta­tus and Trans­fer of Play­ers (RSTP), which cov­ers con­tract ter­mi­na­tions with­out just cause,” FIFA shared in a state­ment. “We aim to gath­er fresh ideas and chart the best course for­ward.”

The cur­rent reg­u­la­tions hold that any play­er break­ing a con­tract pre­ma­ture­ly must com­pen­sate the club, and if they move to a new team, the new club shares the bur­den of the pay­out. How­ev­er, a piv­otal rul­ing by the Court of Jus­tice of the Euro­pean Union (CJEU) on Oct. 4—spurred by a case involv­ing for­mer France inter­na­tion­al Las­sana Diarra—declared these rules unlaw­ful. The judg­ment is expect­ed to trig­ger sig­nif­i­cant revi­sions to FIFA’s trans­fer reg­u­la­tions.

“The rules in ques­tion obstruct the free move­ment of pro­fes­sion­al foot­ballers who want to fur­ther their careers by join­ing a new club,” the CJEU stat­ed.

FIFA has con­firmed that changes are inevitable.

“FIFA is com­mit­ted to refin­ing its reg­u­la­tions with input from all rel­e­vant par­ties,” said Emilio Gar­cia Sil­vero, FIFA’s Chief Legal & Com­pli­ance Offi­cer.

While Diarra’s legal team pre­dicts a major shake-up of the trans­fer sys­tem, FIFA insists that only a por­tion of the exist­ing reg­u­la­tions will be impact­ed.

“The inter­na­tion­al trans­fer sys­tem is com­plex and cov­ers many aspects,” Gar­cia Sil­vero explained, not­ing that the rul­ing won’t affect key areas like reg­is­tra­tion peri­ods, train­ing com­pen­sa­tions, pro­tec­tions for female play­ers, or dis­pute res­o­lu­tions that safe­guard both play­ers and clubs world­wide.

For now, the spot­light is on how FIFA will address the areas flagged by the EU, but the big­ger pic­ture of glob­al foot­ball trans­fers remains intact.