Players’ unions appear in court to criticize FIFA calendar

Professional football players’ unions from England (PFA) and France (UNFP) appeared this Thursday in a Brussels court to denounce the calendar “unilaterally fixed” by FIFA, in particular the new Club World Cup scheduled for 2025.

The union organizations, which have the support of the FIFPRO Europe union in the action, “consider that these decisions violate the rights of players and their unions derived from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and that they also violate European competition law”, explains the UNFP in a statement.

“Players and their unions continue to insist that the current football calendar is overloaded and impractical”, recalls the UNFP. At the beginning of May, FIFPRO and the World Association of Football Leagues had already threatened FIFA with legal action.

Player representatives criticize FIFA for “having unilaterally continued with a program to expand competitions, despite opposition from unions”, in particular by expanding the Club World Cup from 7 to 32 teams, with the first edition scheduled to take place between 15 June and July 13, 2025 in the United States.

“The most sought-after players are now part of an endless program of matches and competitions with their club and country, whose limits are constantly being surpassed”, laments Maheta Molango, general director of the PFA, in a statement.

The two unions point to a possible violation by FIFA of the right of European workers to “collectively negotiate their working conditions, through unions” and their “right to working conditions that respect health”, provided for in the texts Europeans.

Furthermore, the unions also base their action on the document issued in December by the CJEU, in the case of the Superliga, which considered that FIFA restricts the right to competition “in a discretionary manner”.