European Unions FIFPRO filed a legal complaint this Thursday against the FIFA because they question “the legality of their decisions to unilaterally establish the calendar of international matches and, in particular, the scheduling of the FIFA Club World Cup in the summer of 2025.”
Unions consider these decisions to violate the rights of players and their unions under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, while potentially breaching EU competition law.
The English Professional Footballers Association (PFA) and the Union Nationale des Footballeurs Professionnels (the French players’ union), supported by FIFPRO Europe, asked the Brussels Commercial Court to refer the case to the European Court of Justice.
They understand that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights guarantees workers and their unions certain basic rights. These include the prohibition of forced or compulsory labor, freedom of employment, the right to negotiate and conclude collective agreements, the right to healthy working conditions and the right to an annual period of paid vacation. Players and their unions have consistently pointed out that the current football calendar is overloaded and unsustainable.
According to FIFPRO’s complaint in the letter, FIFA, however, did not act or negotiate in a meaningful way. He continues to advance his decision for this new Club World Cup, a tournament that “will force 32 clubs and their players to participate in this new competition in the United States from mid-June to mid-July 2025. Once completed the preparation and travel phases, the tournament is likely to generate up to six weeks of extra work to be added to a packed schedule.
A turning point
Players and unions consider that, in the wider context of the football calendar, this new FIFA Club World Cup represents a turning point: “For the most in-demand players, both for club matches and national team competitions, “The right to a guaranteed annual break has become almost non-existent, with the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup taking place only during the year theoretically available for those player to rest.”
That is why they insist on considering that this FIFA decision violates the “charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CDFUE), without any serious justification. In the end, the players’ unions believe that the purpose of this new competition is to “increase the wealth and power of world football’s governing body, without considering the impact on participating players or other stakeholders within professional football.”
FIFPRO denounces that it seems normal for FIFA to unilaterally and abusively occupy an area that, in modern and open management, naturally corresponds to the social partners and, therefore, to the negotiation of collective agreements between the players’ unions and employers’ organizations.
For all these reasons, they ask the Brussels Commercial Court to refer this important matter to the European Court of Justice because it violates the players’ right to negotiate their working conditions. It occupies a common place for vacations. It also means attacking healthy working conditions by imposing a significant additional workload through the Club World Cup.
And the leagues and the other countries?
From FIFA they don’t want to show up. But it is noteworthy that at the moment it is only about the European representatives of FIFPRO. Not in the whole world. And in this case, only the French and German union reported. But at the moment there is no writing of Leagues or international FIFPRO
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
