Soccer union launches legal action against FIFA over fixture congestion

CNN — FIFA is facing a legal challenge over the world governing body’s “unilateral” decision to set the international match calendar – notably an expanded 32-team FIFA Club World Cup – unions representing soccer players said in a statement on Thursday. The claim filed by the English Professional Footballers’ Association and the Union Nationale des Footballeurs Professionnels – the French player union – and supported by FIFPRO Europe, accuses FIFA of violating player’s rights and potentially EU competition law by creating a calendar that is “overloaded and unworkable.” According to FIFPRO Europe, FIFA has “failed to meaningfully engage or negotiate and have unilaterally continued a programme of competition expansion despite the opposition of player unions.” “Since all attempts at dialogue have failed, it is now up to us to ensure that the fundamental rights of players are fully respected by taking the matter to the European courts and thus to the European Court of Justice,” said FIFPRO President David Terrier. Next year’s Club World Cup is scheduled to take place in the United States from mid-June to mid-July, and the unions say it infringes on the players’ right to an annual break, breaching the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights “without any serious justification.” The player unions are asking the Brussels Court of Commerce to refer the case to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling over concerns about forced labour, rights to healthy working conditions, rights to collective bargaining and restriction of competition. In May, FIFPRO and the World League Associations sent a letter to FIFA threatening legal action over the global football calendar which they said is “now beyond saturation, to the point that national leagues are unable to properly organise their competitions” while “players are being pushed beyond their limits, with significant injury risks and impacts on their welfare”.