A ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has meant that the transfer rules in football have to be adapted because they partially violate applicable EU law. Now, Bayern’s head of player affairs Jan-Christian Dreesen explained his view of the matter.
Lassana Diarra, who had fallen out with his then club Lokomotiv Moscow and refused to take part in training, had set the ball rolling. The club terminated his contract as a result, and Diarra left Moscow. Following a complaint by the Russians, the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber had sanctioned this with a heavy fine of ten million euros on May 18, 2015, and this was also confirmed by the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Because the football associations had subsequently announced that any club that offered Diarra a new sporting home would have to contribute to the ten-million-euro fine, a planned transfer of the Frenchman to the Belgian club RSC Charleroi fell through. Diarra went to court – the rest is now history.
No permission to terminate contracts without consequences
The big question remains: what impact will the ruling have on European club football? Opinions vary. Jan-Christian Dreesen, Bayern Munich’s CEO and deputy chairman of the European Club Association (ECA), points out, for example, that “for the time being, the ruling does not allow players to terminate their contracts without consequences. That is an important part of this ruling.” Otherwise, however, it remains to be seen “how big the impact will be in the future.”
Dreesen also emphasized that “the current transfer system primarily benefits the smaller clubs”, since, in contrast to the big clubs, they “do not have the large revenues from media rights and sponsorship” and are primarily dependent on “revenues from ticketing and the transfer market”. Nevertheless, the 57-year-old also knows that the system, as it has been practiced so far, must be changed.
“We now need to be clear and evaluate the judgment carefully,” said Dreesen, who also made no secret of the fact that he would like to retain the existing model as far as possible, because: ‘I think it is also in the interest of the players that the existing transfer system is protected.’ In essence, it must also be a matter of ensuring that players in breach of contract do not get a ‘free pass’ in the future.
“We don’t see anything in this case that undermines our system”
Dreesens colleague Dariusz Mioduski, owner of the Polish team Legia Warsaw, added that the ECJ ruling “especially benefits top players”, but he also pointed out that it is “still too early” to say, as the ruling still needs to be evaluated. Mioduski does not believe that the transfer system will be completely overhauled.
“We don’t think this case fundamentally changes the system. It’s just about introducing some elements of proportionality in certain situations. We don’t see anything in this case that undermines our system. We don’t see it as a reason to panic, as some people might think. We are working with FIFA to assess it.”