Football: FIFA Class Action
By Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw
It has been reported that the Dutch foundation ‘Justice for Players’ (JFP), has commenced, on 4 August 2025, a legal class action against FIFA, the World Governing Body of Association Football, and the Belgian, Danish, Dutch, French and German football associations.
JFP, acting on behalf of 100,000 present and past footballers, who have been playing in Europe since 2002, claims that they could have lost income as a result of “unlawful” FIFA Transfer Regulations.
This class action is a consequence of the ruling, on 4 October 2024, by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Diarra case, which found that some of the FIFA Regulations restricted freedom of movement of workers and breached European Union Competition Law.
For details of the Diarra case, see our earlier Post on the SLT website.
It is interesting to note that JFP are legally represented in this class action by a former footballer, Udo Onwere, who is now a lawyer and has described the case, in somewhat apocalyptic terms, as a “seismic legal confrontation between players and FIFA.”
It has also been reported that the case, if successful, could result in several billion Euros in damages being awarded.
It will be interesting to see how FIFA and the others respond to this case and its final outcome, which Onwere has remarked “could rewrite the rules governing player mobility across the global football industry."
Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw may be contacted by e-mail at ‘
