2024-10-14 11:52:00
A few hours before the League of Nations meeting which will pit the France team against Belgium, in Brussels, Monday October 14, another match will begin in the Belgian capital, on the judicial field. The International Football Federation (FIFA) is the subject of a complaint before the European Commission for violation of competition law rules and abuse of dominant position.
The authors of the complaint – the European branch of the global players’ union, Fifpro, and the association which represents the interests of professional national leagues on the Old Continent, European Leagues – accuse FIFA of drawing up the calendar of club competitions and selections without worrying about the opinion of those mainly concerned: the players.
Several of them had also been publicly upset about it in recent weeks, believing that they had pulled too hard. “We’ve been saying it for three or four years”denounced, in September, the French international and FC Barcelona defender Jules Koundé. “But no one listens to us, we (…)the first actors. There will come a time when we will go on strike. This is the only way we will have to be heard. » Alerted by the speeches, in private, of increasingly dissatisfied players, Fifpro claims to have asked FIFA to begin negotiations. “We always found the door closed”regrets David Terrier, president of the European branch of the union.
“There were consultations”retorts a source within the international federation. “ They led to the final version of the calendar” for the period 2025-2030, validated on March 14, 2023 in Rwanda, in Kigali, during the annual Congress of the body. The expanded version of the Club World Cup, the first edition of which will take place in June 2025 with twelve European teams – compared to one previously – is then approved. “A unilateral decision, the straw that broke the camel’s back”judge, for his part, David Terrier.
A threshold of 55 matches per season not to be exceeded
The start of the new Champions League formula in September, with at least two additional matches per team, relaunched this now hot news. “We are not opposed to new competitionsspecifies David Terrier. But we want a co-construction of the calendars, which takes into account the opinions of the players. » However, this is not the case today, according to Fifpro, which has published annual reports since 2019, produced by Football Benchmark, on the infernal pace imposed on professional footballers.
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