Offside! CJEU judgment that finds FIFA transfer rules anti-competitive set to have major implications for the football transfer market

This material was first published by Thomas Reuters, trading as Sweet & Maxwell, 5 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5AQ, in Entertainment Law Review as Offside! CJEU Judgment that Finds FIFA Transfer Rules Anti-competitive Set to have Major Implications for the Football Transfer Market (2025) 36 Ent. L.R., Issue 1 © 2024 Thomson Reuters and Contributors and is reproduced by agreement with the publishers.

On 4 October 2024, FIFA suffered its second major EU law setback in less than a year when the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held in Diarra¹ that FIFA’s rules underpinning the current multi-billion euro transfer market contravene EU rules on free movement and competition.

Stephen Smith, Sean-Paul Brankin and Iva Gobac from our Competition & Antitrust team take a closer look at the background of the case, the relevant FIFA rules as well as the Court's judgment in the context of those EU rules.

Download the full PDF article here.

¹ Federation internationale de football association (FIFA) v BZ (C-650/22) EU:C:2024:824