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Latest FL Journal Articles
29
May
2026
Benefits in Kind and the Limits of Bad-Faith Allegations in Mitigation - By Georgi GRADEV & Yavor PETKOV
CAS 2025/A/11025 FC Partizan v. Ericksson Patrick Correia Andrade
[1]
For the purposes of mitigation under Article 17.1 ii) of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (Ed February), contractually guaranteed monetary housing and car allowances formed part of the player’s remuneration. They had to be deducted from the residual value of the terminated contract as mitigation. By contrast, al...
29
May
2026
Denial of Justice Through the Lens of CAS: When is a Sports Governing Body Liable? - By Saverio SPERA & Krisstian TERZIEV
CAS 2025/A/11162 Asociación Liga Deportiva Alajuelense v. Club León, Club de Fútbol Pachuca & FIFA
Over the past two decades, the doctrine of denial of justice has become firmly integrated into lex sportiva. CAS 2025/A/11162[1] offers a thorough analysis by introducing a three-part test based on Swiss Law and clarifying its application in FIFA eligibility cases. However, although denial of justice is now clearly defined in CAS jurisprud...
29
May
2026
Reframing Player Representation in Türkiye: Towards a Player-Focused, Plural and Effective Model of Football Governance - By Emin ÖZKURT
The contemporary debate on players’ rights in international football can no longer be reduced to the traditional question of whether players should be represented collectively, since the more pressing question is now how such representation should be organised, legitimised and made effective in practice. The recent deterioration of the relations...
29
May
2026
Solidarity: A Key Driver Towards Sustainable Professional Football - By Jean-François BROCARD & Christophe LEPETIT
Football’s transfer system has long been defended by reference to its redistributive function. Jean-François Brocard and Christophe Lepetit examine whether existing solidarity mechanisms still meet that objective in an increasingly financialised football economy. Distinguishing between horizontal and vertical solidarity, they argue that the curr...
26
May
2026
CJEU Recent Case-Law: Between Alarmism and the Acceptance of Known Truths - By Alejandro NARANJO ACOSTA & Marc ORTÍ CARCELLER
The recent CJEU case-law on football has triggered both alarmist readings and excessive confidence in the resilience of existing structures. Focusing on Diarra and Seraing, Alejandro Naranjo Acosta and Marc Ortí Carceller argue that neither the transfer system nor sports dispute resolution mechanisms have been overturned, but both must continue...
22
May
2026
Three Reasons (Not) to Preserve Football’s Transfer System - By Thomas PEETERS
In this contribution, Thomas Peeters asks whether football still needs a transfer system after Diarra, and if so, what it should be designed to achieve. Focusing on youth training, financial solidarity and talent discovery, he argues that the pre-Diarra model responded to real economic issues, but in ways that were often inefficient and too rest...
18
May
2026
The Post‑Diarra Landscape: Reassessing the Balance between Player Mobility and Contractual Stability in Football - By Maite NADAL & Rodrigo CARCIA
Written by Maite Nadal and Rodrigo García, lawyers at Laffer Abogados, this article examines how the Diarra ruling reshapes the balance between player mobility and contractual stability. It considers the implications for compensation mechanisms, national law and the future regulation of the football transfer system.
01
May
2026
The Royal Antwerp FC Judgment (C-680/21): Last But Not Least
Far from being the overlooked judgment of the CJEU’s sporting trilogy of 21 December 2023, Royal Antwerp FC may prove to be the most structurally significant. In this contribution, Melchior Wathelet, Ministre d’Etat and Professor of European Law, Fabrice Picod, Professor of European Law at University Paris II Panthéon-Assas, and Oliver Budzinski...
03
Apr
2026
Opening a Necessary Conversation on the Future of the European Professional Football Labour Market
Football Legal is launching a new online series devoted to a central question for the game: how should the European professional football labour market be regulated in the years ahead?
02
Dec
2025
Editorial of Football Legal # 23 (2025/2) - By Ronan DAVID
Every new edition of Football Legal is an opportunity to step back and observe how the legal architecture of football continues to evolve. When the first issue appeared in 2014, the landscape was already complex. Eleven years later, the pace of change has only increased, and the role of law – whether EU Law, arbitration, national labour rules or...
28
Nov
2025
CAS 2023/A/10032 Wolverhampton Wanderers FC v. FIFA - By Emily Anne WILLIAMS
CAS 2023/A/10032 Wolverhampton Wanderers FC v. FIFA
This CAS award (Award) was rendered on 9 August 2024, and the Award, with the grounds, was notified on 19 June 2025.[1]
Wolverhampton Wanderers FC (Wolves) filed an appeal against FIFA’s decision to reject the international transfer and registration of a minor player (Player) from Derry City FC (DCFC), a club affiliated with the Football Associ...
28
Nov
2025
The Diarra Ruling and the Future of the FIFA DRC - Interview with Frans DE WEGER
Interview with Frans De Weger, President of the Dispute Resolution Chamber of the FIFA Football Tribunal
28
Nov
2025
The Pedro Rocha Case and What We Can Expect in the Future - By Carlos MORENO CABALLERO & Juan Diego VELARDE BARRIENTOS
Audiencia Nacional, Central Administrative Court no. 2, 29 September 2025, no. 128/2025
Audiencia Nacional, Central Administrative Court no. 2, 29 September 2025, no. 128/2025[1]
28
Nov
2025
Structured Finance in Italian Football - By Federico VENTURI FERRIOLO, Davide VALLI, Luca Alfonso LIBERTI & Nicolò PERI
Regulating Finance in Italian Football
The Italian model of sports governance is increasingly called upon to address complex regulatory challenges related to investment activities and structured finance within the football industry.
In recent years, the financial situation of professional football clubs has been critical, with a few cases of...
28
Nov
2025
Corporate Tools after the TPO Ban: How Brazil’s SAF Framework May Enable Lawful Financing for Player Acquisition and Result Distribution - By André RIBEIRO
Abstract
The prohibition of Third-Party Ownership (TPO) and Third-Party Influence (TPI) under Articles 18ter and 18bis of FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) dismantled an entire financing model that had long sustained Brazilian football. Despite its flaws, TPO provided risk-bearing capital for player acquisition in an...
28
Nov
2025
SAFs: The Brazilian Corporate Model for Football Clubs - By Pedro Paulo FRIZZO GONAÇALVES
This article analyses the implementation of the first Brazilian corporate model specific to football clubs, the “Sociedades Anônimas do Futebol” (SAFs). Even though the debate around creating a corporate model for football clubs is not new, the SAF legislation was promulgated only in 2021. In this sense, this article analyses the historical proc...
28
Nov
2025
The Football Players’ Right of Effective Employment - The Player’s Exclusion from the Group Training and B team Inclusion - By João NOGUEIRA DA ROCHA
There is an increasing number of disputes regarding the violation of the right to effective employment or the right of effective occupation. This can be understood as a violation of the player’s personality rights and the practice of workplace harassment.
In Portugal, with regard to football, the right to effective occupation is of particular i...
28
Nov
2025
The Right of Football Clubs and Players to Benefit from an Effective Judicial Review of Arbitral Awards Issued Against Them by the Court of Arbitration for Sport - By Olivier MANDEL
In football, as in many other sports, the submission of disputes to arbitration, particularly those that may arise between a football club and FIFA, is imposed unilaterally by the FIFA Statutes. On 1 August 2025 (Case C-600/23), the CJEU issued an important ruling in which, without calling into question the mandatory use of arbitration, it...
28
Nov
2025
The Supervision of Bayern Supporters Traveling by Bus to the Parc des Princes was Justified
Paris Administrative Court, Order, 4 November 2025, no. 2531985
The announced presence of visiting supporters identified as “high risk” at the match between two clubs, combined with the long-standing rivalry between the two teams’ supporters, with clashes and brawls, indicated a risk of serious public disorder on the day of the match. Under these circumstances, and given that these high-risk supporters plann...
28
Nov
2025
Adrien Rabiot Obtains the Reclassification of his Successive Fixed-Term Contracts with PSG into a Contract of an Indefinite Duration
Paris Court of Appeal, 19 June 2025, no. 22/01925, Adrien Rabiot
Not subject to the transitional provisions of the Law of 27 November 2015 (enshrining the specific fixed-term contract), fixed-term contracts concluded from 2014 onwards between Paris Saint-Germain and its former player are governed by national standard labor law regulations, which makes the use of fixed-term contracts conditional on proof of th...
28
Nov
2025
"FIFPRO believes that the ruling should significantly improve players’ freedom to negotiate or terminate their contracts” - Interview with Alexandra GOMEZ BRUINEWOUD
Interview with Alexandra Gomez Bruinewoud, FIFPRO Legal Director
28
Nov
2025
28
Nov
2025
Betting Scandal within the Turkish Football Federation: An Unprecedented Investigation Involving Referees, the Club Presidents and Football Players - By Emin OZKURT
On 27 October 2025, İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu, President of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), held a press conference to unveil remarkable findings concerning the involvement of professional referees in betting activities.
According to the data presented, 571 active referees are officiating across Türkiye’s professional divisions - the Süper L...
28
Nov
2025
Abandonment of Match in Turkish Football and its Legal Consequences - By Emin OZKURT
During Week 23 of the Trendyol Süper Lig, on 9 February 2025, a highly controversial incident occurred in the match between Galatasaray and Adana Demirspor. In the 10th minute, referee Oğuzhan Çakır awarded a disputed penalty in favor of Galatasaray, which led to a goal. Following this development, Adana Demirspor’s head coach, Mustafa Alper Avc...
28
Nov
2025
After Diarra: A New Landscape for Football Agents - By Roberto BRANCO MARTINS
The ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU (the Court) of 4 October 2024 (Diarra) marks a significant turning point in how the international football labour market is managed and operates. The ruling not only alters procedural aspects of the current Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP), it also fundamentally alters the prin...