The tectonic tensions in the world of football produced a seismic tremor this week. News emerged from the Netherlands of a class action that promised to seek compensation for players whose careers – the case claimed – had been blighted by Fifa’s rules.
The scale of the action, undertaken by the group Justice For Players, is potentially vast: it holds that every active professional player, male or female, since 2002 could claim against Fifa for about 8% of their career earnings. Coming as a consequence of the ruling by the European court of justice (CJEU) on the Lassana Diarra case last year, the class action is considered exceptional by many in football because it has the potential to hit a governing body hard in the pocket. Should enough players and former players join, and were it to be successful, Fifa could be liable for a sum in the billions.
