Diarra seeks £56m from Fifa and Belgian FA in legal action

Lassana Diarra, a former France midfielder, has started legal action to recover compensation from FIFA and the Royal Belgian Football Association.

Diarra has been involved in legal action against world football’s governing body Fifa after his legal team’s legal team terminated his contract with Lokomotiv Moscow in 2014.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) determined in October that Fifa’s regulations, which govern some football transfers’ operation, contravene EU law.

Diarra, who played for Chelsea, Arsenal, and Portsmouth in the Premier League, stated on Monday that he hoped the RBFA and Fifa would “at least have the decency to approach me and propose an amicable settlement.”

The 40-year-old has therefore decided to start the Belgian national court case.

The CJEU alleged that Fifa’s rules “impede the free movement of professional footballers wishing to develop their activity by moving to a new club” by refusing to provide Diarra with an international transfer certificate (ITC) for a proposed move to Belgian club Charleroi in 2015.

After discovering that Diarra had broken his contract with the Russian club, Fifa required him to pay Lokomotiv Moscow an additional £8 million.

Diarra is supported by the professional footballers’ unions FifPro, FifPro Europe, and the UNFP in France.

“I have been compelled to fight this legal battle since August 2014,” I said. That’s more than 11 years, according to a joint media release from Diarra.

“I’m doing this for myself,” but I’ve also done it for all the younger, less well-known players who lack the financial and psychological resources to take on Fifa in front of actual judges.

In response to the CJEU ruling, Fifa changed its transfer regulations, establishing a temporary framework for the calculation of the contract-breaching burden and compensation payable.

However, Diarra claimed that those modifications “do not adhere to the strict requirements set forth by the CJEU decision.”

According to a Fifa spokesperson, Fifa has been working with its stakeholders to change its regulations in response to the guidance the ECJ gave in the Diarra case since its ruling in October 2024.

Fifa does not comment on ongoing legal issues.

A class action lawsuit against Fifa, along with the football associations of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark, was launched following the CJEU ruling, asking for compensation for alleged income loss caused by stringent transfer regulations.

On Monday, JFP stated, “We stand firmly alongside Mr. Diarra.” It called on players to join its class action and stated that Fifa’s “temporary changes to the transfer rules… still don’t fully comply with EU law.”