Diarra suing FIFA for $76m after transfer case

Lawyers for former France international Lassana Diarra said Monday he is claiming €65 million ($76m) from FIFA and the Belgian football federation after a landmark legal win about transfer rules.

Diarra’s decade-long challenge to FIFA after a breakdown in relations with his former club Lokomotiv Moscow led to a ruling at the European Court of Justice last October that some aspects of football’s transfer rules do not comply with the 27-nation European Union’s labor and competition laws.

Lawyers for the 40-year-old former Chelsea, Arsenal and Real Madrid midfielder cited “unsuccessful settlement negotiations with FIFA” for the financial claim for damages throughout his career.

“Lassana Diarra is claiming €65m gross (€35m net) in compensation from FIFA and the Belgian Football Association,” his legal firm Dupont Hissel said in a statement.

FIFA said it would not comment about “on-going legal matters” — the latest high-stakes legal challenge to its authority.

Football’s governing body said in a statement it “has been working with its stakeholders to amend its regulations following the guidance offered by the ECJ.”

Diarra’s case, which is back in court in Belgium, is supported by the global players’ union FIFPRO, its European division and their national member union in France.

The legal case started in the home country of Charleroi, the Belgian club that wanted to sign Diarra after his contract in Moscow was terminated.

FIFA transfer rules at the time made the player and the potential signing club liable for paying the former club when a contract was ruled to have been broken without “just cause.” The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld FIFA’s ruling in favor of Lokomotiv.

The case was sent to the European court in Luxembourg which said some aspects of the FIFA rules “hinder the free movement of players and competition between clubs.”

Diarra’s dispute with Lokomotiv and FIFA forced him to miss the 2014-15 season. He then signed for Marseille and ended his career at Paris Saint-Germain six years ago.

“I am doing this for myself,” Diarra said in a statement Monday published by his lawyers. “And if I have been able to hold out against the FIFA steamroller, it is because I had a good career.”

“But I have also done it for all the up and coming, lesser known players who do not have the financial and psychological means to challenge FIFA before real judges,” he said.

Diarra’s lawyers also are working on a class action suit filed this month against FIFA and some national soccer federations in Europe which claims could benefit 100,000 players over more than two decades.