FIFPRO Europe, which brings together the associations of professional footballers of the old continent, announced that it is suing FIFA, questioning the legality of unilaterally establishing the international match calendar and, in particular, that of creating and scheduling the 2025 Club World Cup.
In a statement, the group announced its legal action and stated that “player unions believe that these decisions” by FIFA “violate the rights of footballers.”
In the opinion of FIFPRO, the transgressions committed by FIFA are against “the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, while at the same time they could violate EU competition legislation.”
The Professional Players Associations of England (PFA) and France (UNFP) ask, with the support of FIFPRO Europe, the Commercial Court of Brussels to refer the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) with four preliminary questions .
Among their arguments they highlight that the “current football calendar is overloaded and unviable” .
They recalled that the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits forced or compulsory labor; as well as guaranteeing freedom to work, among other rights.
According to FIFPRO, “from mid-June to mid-July 2025, 32 clubs and their players” will participate in the XL competition in the United States.
“Once preparation periods and travel are included, the tournament is likely to generate up to six weeks of additional work on top of an already packed calendar,” FIFPRO said.
The international entity assured that the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup XL “represents a turning point” because “it will be held during the only period of the year theoretically available for players to take a break.”
“The players unions They believe that the goal of this new competition is to increase the wealth and power of world football’s governing body.without taking due account of the impact on the footballers involved or other interested parties within professional football,” they add.
In its statement, FIFPRO questioned that “it seems normal to FIFA to unilaterally and abusively occupy an area that – in a modern and open governance – naturally corresponds to the social partners and, therefore, to the negotiation of collective agreements between unions. of players and representative organizations of the clubs.”
