Valentin Vada case: TAS 2012/A/2862 Girondins de Bordeaux v. FIFA

TAS 2012/A/2862 Girondins de Bordeaux v. FIFA

Date of the decision: 2013-01-11

Arbitrator(s): Olivier Carrard Prosper Abega Paul Mauriac

International transfers prohibition

Article 19 of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (hereinafter, the RSTP) expressly establishes that international transfers of players are only permitted if the player is over the age of 18; consequently, the RSTP prohibits international transfers of players who are under the age of 18.

Such prohibition arose as a consequence of the abuse and mistreatment experienced in the past by underage football players, in addition to the fact that clubs and agents, with the complicity of parents, increasingly transferred and conveyed very young players to distant countries, with completely different customs and languages, moving them away from their roots, relatives and friends in the middle of their development process.

This led FIFA, as it was mentioned above, to prohibit international transfers of players under the age of 18, exclusively thinking of the minor’s objective interest. This...

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