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Football players have taken legal action against Fifa over the world governing body’s expansion into the club game and the increased workload the extra matches will bring, escalating the schism between the sport’s stars and organisers.
Global players’ union Fifpro Europe said on Thursday that it had submitted a legal claim at the Brussels Court of Commerce, accusing Fifa of “unilaterally” setting the international match calendar and challenging its plans for a revamped club competition.
With the support of the English and French player unions, Fifpro Europe wants to have the case referred to the European Court of Justice, as the fight over the “overloaded and unworkable” football calendar ramps up.
A critical element of the debate is Fifa’s plan to expand the Club World Cup from seven teams to 32 at next year’s tournament in the US.
The enlarged format could help Fifa president Gianni Infantino boost revenues for the governing body, whose predominant money spinner is the World Cup between national teams that is held every four years.
“Ultimately, player unions believe the aim of this new competition is to increase the wealth and power of football’s global governing body, with no proper regard for the impact on the players involved or on other stakeholders within professional football,” Fifpro Europe said.
Fifa, which acts as the game’s governing body and a competition organiser in its own right, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A person with knowledge of Fifa’s position stressed that the international match calendar had been approved by the Fifa Council, a body of 37 elected members, and rejected the notion that scheduling was imposed without enough dialogue.
The issue is a sensitive matter because of the potential for negative public perceptions of highly paid football players complaining about their workloads. Despite advances in nutrition, recovery and sports science, players maintain that the human body has limits and that overburdening it will harm both their own health and the spectacle for fans.
According to Fifpro, England star Jude Bellingham, 20, has played almost five times as many minutes as former captain David Beckham had before turning 21.
Fifpro Europe warned that top players’ “right to a guaranteed annual break” had become “virtually non-existent” and that the Club World Cup would occupy the only possible period for rest.
“Since all attempts at dialogue have failed, it is now up to us to ensure that the fundamental rights of players are fully respected by taking the matter to the European courts and thus to the ECJ,” said Fifpro Europe president David Terrier.
“It’s not a question of stigmatising a particular competition, but of denouncing both the underlying problem and the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he added.
Law firm Dupont-Hissel is representing Fifpro’s member unions at the Brussels Court of Commerce.