FIFA reported to the European Commission for “abusive” calendar
La Liga, European Leagues and FIFPro jointly filed a complaint on Monday; the 2025 Club World Cup and the 2026 World Cup are at stake
La Liga , the European Leagues (the association of European leagues, chaired by Pedro Proença) and FIFPro (the association of professional footballers) have filed a complaint with the European Commission against FIFA, due to the overloaded football calendar.
The joint complaint was filed on Monday and particularly denounces FIFA’s imposition of this new calendar, with the expansion of the 2026 World Cup and the new Club World Cup in 2025, without any dialogue with other entities. “This saturated calendar endangers the safety, well-being of players, and the economic and social sustainability of national competitions,” the complaint reads (quoting RMC Sport ).
Javier Tebas, president of La Liga, said at a press conference in Brussels: “It’s strange that FIFA didn’t listen to anyone. FIFA can’t regulate anything in this employment area without the agreement of the employee and the employer.”
“FIFA has approved a new window that affects both workers and employers. This fact contravenes the latest rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union. There are more than 50,000 professional players and more than two thousand professional clubs. It is at this table that the sector must be regulated from a labour perspective. Football is not the same as it was 10 or 20 years ago, and yet it is governed by the same governance rules as it was then. We were forced to make this demand,” explained Tebas.
The complaint, entitled “Protecting the health of players and safeguarding the sustainability of Europe’s domestic leagues against FIFA’s abusive conduct”, also alleges a conflict of interest: as FIFA governs world football and organises several competitions, it is accused of using its power to promote its own commercial interests.
According to the international press, this press conference was also attended by, in addition to Javier Tebas, the president of FIFPro Europe, David Terrier, the director of international relations of the Premier League , Mathieu Moreuil, the president of the Norwegian Players’ Association, Kristoffer Vatshaug, and the president of the Italian Players’ Association, Umberto Calcagno.
