E.U. Court Says Some Rules for Soccer’s Transfer Market Are Illegal

Europe|FIFA Limits on Player Transfers Are Illegal, Europe’s Top Court Rules

Europe’s top court ruled on Friday that some elements of soccer’s multibillion-dollar global player trading market are illegal, a decision that is likely to force changes to the way thousands of athletes move between teams around the world every year.

The ruling, concerning the right of players under contract to terminate those agreements under rules drawn up by FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, came in a case brought by a French player who was subject to millions of dollars in fines after walking out of his agreement with a Russian team in a pay dispute and trying to sign with a club in Belgium.

The penalties levied against the player, Lassana Diarra, and any team that wanted to sign him, “are contrary to E.U. law,” the European Court of Justice said in a statement on Friday.

The full 43-page ruling was published a few hours later, and the details in that decision will be pored over by lawyers from each side in order to understand of how significant any changes to player trading rules will be. Any changes would have wide-ranging implications: Soccer’s transfer market is an industry unto itself, a global bazaar that involves thousands of players each year, is closely followed by tens of millions of soccer fans, and serves as a major engine source of revenue for the hundreds of teams that develop players around the globe.

The statement from the E.C.J. said judges at the court had considered the impact of roster stability in its decision but determined that the rules managed by FIFA “go beyond what is necessary to pursue that objective.”

Diarra’s case was brought by a Belgian lawyer, Jean Louis-Dupont, who was also a key figure in a major case heard by the court a generation earlier that revolutionized the trading market. That case, named for Jean Marc-Bosman, the former player who brought it, mandated that free agents could join the club of their choosing without a fee after their contracts expired — instantly flipping the power over the market from clubs to players, and ushering an era of supersize contracts for the game’s top stars.