Organisations representing European football leagues and players’ unions have teamed up to take legal action against the sport’s world governing body FIFA over the current football calendar.

The complaint will be formally filed by European Leagues, LaLiga, and the players’ organisation FIFPRO Europe, and will run in parallel to separate actions initiated by individual leagues and player unions at national level.

European Leagues’ membership includes, among others, England’s Premier League, Germany’s DFL, and Italy’s Serie A.

‘Unsustainable’

In a statement, European Leagues said that the international match calendar was now “beyond saturation” and had become unsustainable for national leagues and a risk for the health of players.

England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) said that the legal claim arose from demands that FIFA reverse plans to hold an expanded Club World Cup competition across June and July 2025, “a decision which was taken without negotiation or engagement with player unions”.

European Leagues said that leagues and player unions had repeatedly urged FIFA to develop a clear, transparent, and fair process regarding the international match calendar.

“Regretfully, FIFA has consistently refused to include national leagues and player unions in its decision-making process,” it stated.

The organisation accused FIFA of taking decisions that have “repeatedly favoured its own competitions and commercial interests, neglected its responsibilities as a governing body, and harmed the economic interests of national leagues and the welfare of players”.

Dual role

The legal complaint will argue that FIFA’s conduct infringes EU competition law and constitutes an abuse of dominance, as FIFA holds a dual role as both the global regulator of football and a competition organiser.

“This creates a conflict of interest, which, consistent with recent case law of the EU courts, requires FIFA to exercise its regulatory functions in a way that is transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate. FIFA’s conduct in respect of the international match calendar falls well short of these requirements,” European Leagues said, in a reference to the CJEU’s ruling in the Super League case.

The organisations will ask the Brussels Court of Commerce to refer the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which would then be asked to provide a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of EU law as it relates to footballers’ rights under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights – including the right of players to take an annual period of paid leave.

If this happened, the ECJ would then send the case back to the court in Belgium for a final ruling.

FIFA reacts

The PFA pointed out that the 2024/25 Premier League season wound end on 25 May 2025, with the UEFA Champions League Final taking place a week later.

FIFA’s international window, which will include the UEFA Nations League Final, runs from 2 June to 10 June, with the expanded FIFA Club World Cup kicking off four days later in the USA on 14 June and running until 13 July.

In a response posted on X, FIFA said that its calendar was “the only instrument ensuring that international football can continue to survive, co-exist, and prosper alongside domestic and continental club football”.

It accused some European leagues of acting “with commercial self-interest, hypocrisy, and without consideration to everyone else in the world”.