Zurich, 12 September 2023
The Football Forum has taken note of FIFA’s statement of 9 September 2023 on the “Football Agents Regulations” (FAR), which follows the payment order imposed on FIFA by the Landsgericht of Dortmund for FIFA’s lack of compliance with the injunction issued on 24 May 2023 by the same court.
Faced with such a payment order or the alternative of an imprisonment for FIFA’s legal representative in case of further non-compliance, FIFA has now announced that it will suspend the application of the FAR for all transactions having “a link to the German market”, which will be deemed existent “as soon as any party to a transfer (agent, club, player or coach) has a link to Germany”. The suspension of the FAR will apply to all parties to those transactions (FIFA Statement of 9 September 2023).
The decision to limit the suspension only to the above-referred cases is coherent with FIFA’s approach to the matter thus far, but deplorable. At a time when several State courts of the European Union have expressed their strong concerns on the legality of the FAR by referring the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and by suspending the application of the FAR, everyone with genuine intentions would have taken the simple step to at the very least voluntarily suspend the application of the FAR until the CJEU will decide on the matter. This way uncountable and irreparable damages, in Europe and elsewhere, could be avoided.
This, however, is not what FIFA did. FIFA, instead, complains about the legal actions undertaken by agents around Europe and pretends not to understand that these actions are the consequence of FIFA’s own conduct. Thousands of agents who carry out their activity in the most professional and dedicated manner are in a situation where FIFA is forcing them to seize the national courts to obtain the stay of the FAR, because FIFA refuses to suspend their application until the highest court in the EU has pronounced itself on their legality.
This is a perfect example of (bad) reality going beyond imagination and shows that for some this is a struggle for power. For TFF, however, this is a fight for justice and this is the reason why we are taking it for both players and agents.
FIFA is crafting its own rules, TFF wants the law to be applied.