FIFA have suffered a legal blow just weeks before the World Cup after the French footballers’ union UNFP achieved a landmark decision in the European courts.
The UNFP have successfully advanced a complaint about the health and safety of players’ working conditions and a lack of collective bargaining as a result of decisions made by FIFA.
The UNFP’s complaint at the European Committee of Social Rights is against the French state for failing to uphold protections that they have committed to under the European Social Charter.
They will now proceed to a full hearing and, if successful, will apply pressure to governments across Europe to hold FIFA to account over their decisions to expand the global calendar, adding to the workload of professional footballers.
“They are a structural feature of professional football, driven by FIFA’s expanding competition formats and their unilateral decision-making and control over the international match calendar, in which players and their representatives have no meaningful say.
“France is not alone: many other states are in a comparable situation, with minimum standards for working time, rest periods, occupational health and collective bargaining structurally undermined by decisions taken at global level. FIFPRO Europe therefore regards the UNFP complaint as a signal case with implications well beyond France”.
The legal battle is the latest to be waged between player unions and FIFA as a result of the governing body’s introduction of a 32-team Club World Cup and expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams.
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