FIFA sued by European Commission for abuse of power

Last Monday (October 14), European football players and leagues took another step forward in their months-long legal battle against FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association).

FIFPro Europe - the European representative body of FIFPro (World Federation of Professional Footballers) - along with major tournaments such as Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1... have filed a complaint with the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission in Brussels (Belgium).

This is the body responsible for ensuring that companies compete on fair and equal terms throughout the EU (European Union).

The complaint claims that FIFA, which is chaired by Gianni Infantino, broke EU law by unilaterally setting the calendar, with the creation of new tournaments.

A typical example is the Club World Cup scheduled to be held from June 15 to July 13, 2025 in the United States, with the participation of 32 teams, a version similar to the World Cup for national teams also organized by FIFA every 4 years.

The committee received the complaint on Monday morning. While it focused on the unilateral imposition of the competition schedule, it also highlighted that FIFA had a conflict of interest in being the “governing body and organiser of the competition”.

"FIFA's conduct in relation to the international calendar is a classic example of abuse of managerial position," explained Alfonso Lamadrid, a lawyer at Garrigues, a specialist in competition law and representing the complainant.

The basis for the complaints comes from a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) last December, which sided with those intending to organise the Super League.

The CJEU ruling found that in order to reduce potential conflicts of interest, FIFA must carry out its functions in a "transparent" and "proportional".

Therefore, representatives of clubs and players relied on that to request negotiations on the match schedule, in the context of a series of serious injuries that have just occurred (Rodri, Ter Stegen, Dani Carvajal...).

Willing to negotiate

From this point on, a process will open, in which Brussels has an optional period of four months to decide whether to open the file or not.

For clubs and players, the ideal would be to negotiate a three-way solution – federations, players and FIFA – which would then be confirmed by the European Commission, sources close to the Brussels office said.

If this scenario does not occur, and if the Competition Board decides to continue processing the file, the legal process will be initiated, with the possibility that the matter could end with corresponding fines.

"It's a historic day and you'll see it in the coming months," La Liga president Javier Tebas declared emphatically.

Tebas and his counterparts from the Premier League, Serie A and Ligue 1 have all asked FIFA to negotiate.

The main goal of the complaint is to force Infantino to sit with them, because with the latest rulings and European regulations, the law seems to be on their side.

"We have sent more than 20 letters without any results. Enough is enough," complained the Premier League's director of international relations, Mathieu Moreuil.

Previously, in mid-June, FIFPro also sued FIFA for unilaterally setting international competition schedules and the Club World Cup in the European Court.