Fernando Veiga Gomes assures the transfer rules in football ‘will certainly be changed’

Fernando Veiga Gomes, partner at Abreu Advogados who works mainly in the area of sports law, comments on the new rules for transferring football players in Jornal de Negócios.

For the lawyer, there will have to be a change, in line with European law and the decision of the CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union), since the case involving former French player Lassana Diarra ‘found that certain rules of FIFA’s regulatory edifice are illegal by object’.

At issue is the departure of Lassana Diarra from Lokomotiv Moscow, who was demanding compensation of 20 million euros for breach of contract. In the European courts, the player challenged part of the rules applicable to contractual relations between players and clubs laid down in the RETJ (Regulation on the Status and Transfer of Players). The European court eventually ruled in his favour, resulting in changes to the FIFA regulations.

Read Fernando Veiga Gomes’ full statements here.