Advocate General questions whether FIFA Regulations are compliant with EU Law: RSTP & football transfer system in review (Part 2)

In the last article, the authors examined the factual and legal context of the Opinion issued by the Advocate General of CJEU on the compatibility of specific FIFA regulations with EU law in C-650/22 FIFA v. BZ (also known as the Lassana Diarra case).

In this case, the CJEU was asked to take a closer look at the provisions of the RSTP concerning:

• joint and several responsibility of the new club for payment of compensation due from the player to his former club (Article 17 paras. 1–2 of the RSTP),
• sporting sanctions that may be imposed on a club inducing a breach of contract by the player (Article 17 para. 4 of the RSTP) and
• issuance of the International Transfer Certificate (“ITC”) in case of a contractual dispute regarding termination of contract (Article 9.1 of the RSTP; Article 8.2 para. 4b) and para. 7 of Annexe 3 to the RSTP).

This article looks at these provisions of the FIFA RSTP and how they work in relation to the larger football transfer system.

If you would prefer to read all the articles together, please click here.

Article Highlights

• Relevant provisions of the FIFA RSTP
• ITC procedure
• Consequences of unjust termination of the contract
• Is recruitment and training of young players a legitimate objective?
• Contractual stability & integrity of competition – key reason behind Art. 17 of RSTP
• Conclusion