FIFPro has filed legal action against FIFA, in the form of a competition law complaint lodged with the Directorate General Competition of the European Commission in Brussels, challenging the global transfer market system governed by FIFA’s regulation as being anti-competitive, unjustified and illegal.

According to FIFPro, FIFA’s Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP), as the core labour and industry regulation of football, fuels and sustains increasing competitive and financial disparity, invites commercial abuse by third party owners and agents and fails to protect players against abuses of their labour contracts via systematic non-payment.

FIFPro’s legal action against FIFA is designed to stabilize a football industry in order to: create the highest possible number of quality jobs for players, ensure that the right of any worker to receive his salary is honored, a basic right so often abused in world football, and ensures reciprocity of rights and obligations by both clubs and players, for the breach or termination of a contract.