The Belgian Commercial Court of Charleroi decided, on 15 May 2006, to reject the G-14 demand, on behalf of its members, for 860 million euros in damages from FIFA.
As to the question of the fundamental legality of FIFA's rule on releasing players, the Charleroi Court decided to refer the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a decision as, according to the judgement, existing jurisprudence is not applicable to the case and a new interpretation is of general interest for the uniform application of the Community law through the EU.
The ECJ is thus now set to rule on whether the FIFA Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players complies with the Treaty of Rome, specifically article 39 (Free movement of workers) and article 49 (Free movement of services) and whether the FIFA rules governing player release and insurance are an abuse of dominant position under articles 81 and 82 (Rules on competition) of the EU Treaty.
The decision to refer the case to ECJ was requested by G-14 and Royal Sporting Charleroi F.C as part of their legal submissions, where they claim the FIFA statutes governing player release and insurance are an abuse of dominant position under articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty of Rome. It thus wants the current FIFA rules on the compulsory release of players for international matches judged illegal or amended through a dialogue with the clubs.
The fact that the case is now referred to the ECJ might relaunch negotiations and dialogue between the G-14 clubs and FIFA.
