I. The Football Tribunal

Following the approval by the FIFA Congress on 21st May 2021, the FIFA Football Tribunal began official operation on the 1st October 2021. This new entity is essentially a consolidation of the existing FIFA bodies into a single umbrella body, which will be comprised of the following three specific chambers:

• The Dispute Resolution Chamber: Decides on employment-related disputes between players and clubs, and disputes related to training rewards;

• The Players’ Status Chamber: Decides employment-related disputes between coaches and clubs or associations, transfer-related disputes between clubs and regulatory applications related to the international transfer system and the eligibility of players to participate for representative teams; and

• The Agents Chamber: Decides disputes involving football agents, following the approval of the FIFA Football Agent Regulations.

The Procedural Rules Governing the Football Tribunal govern the organisation, composition and functions of the Football Tribunal.

A short presentation of the Football Tribunal can be seen below:

For more information on the Football Tribunal, please click here.

II. Transfer market reports

As society and sport continues to adapt to the ever-changing challenges posed by the pandemic, FIFA keeps developing football’s operations and regulations to ensure that the game continues to thrive. Despite the uncertainty, football continues, and so does the movement and transfer of players around the world. 

This section includes an overview and summary of the major updates in relation to the global transfer market, which have taken place in the first few months of 2021.

Global Transfer Market Report 2020

FIFA charts the transfers of professional male and female players, and published the 2020 edition of the FIFA Global Transfer Market Report, which reviews the transfer activity during the previous year.  For the first time, the report also included the transfers of amateur footballers worldwide. Thanks to changes in July 2020 to the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) and enhancements to the Transfer Matching System (TMS), FIFA has been able to process and facilitate transfers of amateurs in TMS.

The transfer of football players represents not only the largest movement of sports people but also the largest in terms of economic or social activity.

For more information, the FIFA Global Transfer Market Report 2020 is available here.

International Transfer Market Snapshot January 2021

January 2021 was the first international transfer window of the year, and FIFA decided to publish a snapshot report immediately after the closing of the transfer window in order to present a clear picture of the international transfer market at that moment.

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is continuing to take a heavy toll on the social and economic life of everyone around the world, has not left football untouched either. This was reflected in the Global Transfer Market Report 2020, but the impact seems to be even more severe when we look in detail at the transfer market in January 2021.

For a breakdown of transfer types and the distribution of transfers by confederation and member association, you can download the FIFA International Transfer Market Snapshot – January 2021 from legal.FIFA.com.

International Transfer Snapshot June - August 2021

Following January’s report, FIFA published its International Transfer Snapshot (June – August 2021), an analysis of player transfer activity during the last transfer window.

According to the report, the number of transfers for men remained at the same level as last year with only a slight decrease in the total amount of transfer fees agreed. In the women’s game, there was a dramatic increase in the number of transfer during this year’s mid-year registration period compared to the same registration period in 2020.

Key findings include:

• 7,748 international transfers involving men’s professional players during the mid-year registration period – approximately the same as last year.

• USD 3.72 billion in total fees involving international transfers of men’s professional players.

• 576 international transfers involving professional female players completed during this year’s mid-year registration period – an 8.7% increase compared to the same registration period in 2020.

• 72.2% increase in the number of transfers involving a fee for a professional women’s player compared to the same registration period in 2020 – 31 transfers in total.

This is the second consecutive year that FIFA has published the snapshot shortly after the conclusion of the international transfer window, providing an overview of global transfers involving both male and female players.

FIFA will publish an in-depth analysis of the characteristics of international transfers concluded over the course of the whole year (2021) in January 2022.

To download the full snapshot, please click here or visit legal.fifa.com.

Ten Years of International Transfers

In late August 2021, FIFA also published a report on international transfers in the men’s game during the 2011‑2020 period, the most comprehensive review of transfers across the globe ever produced. Key take-aways and findings from the report include:

• USD 48.5 billion spent on transfer fees over the past decade.

• 200 FIFA member associations involved in international transfers.

• Top 30 clubs in terms of transfer fee spend are European.

In addition to the points above, the report confirms that transfer market activity increased steadily over the past decade. From 11,890 transfers conducted in 2011 to a peak of 18,079 in 2019, a total of 133,225 international transfers and loans of professional players took place, while USD 48.5 billion was spent on transfer fees during the period.

You can read the entire report on ten years of international transfers here and on legal.FIFA.com. 

III. FLAR (Football Law Annual Review)

Transparency and openness in relation to the operations, initiatives, decisions and challenges of football are of paramount importance to FIFA today. At the same time, the opinions, views and proposals of football stakeholders and lawyers working on current legal and procedural matters also make a key contribution to strengthening the game. As world football’s governing body, FIFA’s role is to bring together perspectives and insights from the football community, promoting discussion and sharing information with legal practitioners from around the world.

The 3rd edition of the FLAR took place in March 2021, and looked at the challenging and ever-changing impact of the pandemic on the football legal world. The two-day event opened with FIFA presenting a full legal and compliance overview of 2020 as well as the outlook for 2021, before exploring a range of key topics on the current legal agenda. 

Expert speakers, FIFA Legal leaders and practitioners from across the industry gave presentations which triggered open discussions (that were streamed live on FIFA.com) on the following topics:

• the new FIFA eligibility rules to play for representative teams;

• minimum labour standards for female professional players;

• the reform of the transfer system;

• new rules for international transfers involving amateurs; and

• the new rules for the employment of coaches.

Re-live the highlights of the third edition of the FIFA Football Law Annual Review (FLAR) in the video below.

With over 1,000 people tuning in from across the world, and many more watching the on‑demand recordings of the presentations and discussions, the 3rd edition of the FLAR successfully shared key information with many in the global legal football community.

The material for the Football Law Annual Review is accessible here.

IV. Football Stakeholders Committee

In line with The Vision 2020-2023, FIFA’s blueprint to “make football truly global”, FIFA is constantly reviewing how rules and regulations across the industry affect everyone in the ecosystem, working with a diverse range of contributors to ensure that the game evolves fairly for all. From a legal perspective, there are a series of committees which advise and assist the FIFA Council and FIFA Congress. The Football Stakeholders Committee (FSC) supports the FIFA Council on all matters relating to football, particularly the structure of the game, as well as on all technical matters.  The FSC is composed of representatives of the most important actors of the game, including players, clubs, leagues, national associations and confederations.

The most recent meeting took place virtually on 14 May 2021, with the FSC confirming the general set of principles of FIFA’s third reform package (which we detailed in full in the second edition of the Professional Football Journal). The principles concerned the following topics:

1. International Transfer of Minors

2. Squad sizes

3. Registration periods (transfer windows)

4. Financial regulation

Additionally, the Task Force Transfer System outlined a set of objectives for additional matters, which were confirmed by the FSC, namely:

i. Respect of Collecting Bargaining Agreements

ii. Sporting just cause

iii. Registration

For more information on meeting no. 09 of the FSC and the individual principles, please click here.

This meeting was the last one with the current composition of members who served the 2017-2021 term. The next meeting will be held with new members (to be decided in the coming months). To mark the completion of the first-ever term of office of the FSC, the members of the FSC were also presented with a document outlining the historical record and achievements of the committee.

V. FIFA Fund for Football Players

Building on the revision of the FIFA Disciplinary Code in 2019, which bolstered the framework for dealing with the non-payment of players’ wages, FIFA has gone one step further during the past 12 months. In partnership with FIFPRO, FIFA has launched an initiative to provide a financial safety net for players around the world, protecting the livelihoods of the game’s key figures.

The FIFA Fund for Football Players (FIFA FFP) was established following an agreement reached by FIFA and FIFPRO in 2020, to provide financial support to players who have not been paid and have no chance of duly receiving the wages agreed with their clubs.

“The FIFA FFP is a landmark mechanism designed to protect football’s main protagonists: the players. Thanks to this novel initiative and the recent conclusion of its first cycle of applications, 1,005 players will receive much-needed financial support during trying times. FIFA stands committed to maintaining this important collaboration with FIFPRO to ensure that all forthcoming application periods are administered and processed successfully towards 2022,” said Emilio García Silvero, FIFA‘s Chief Legal & Compliance Officer, following the announcement of the outcome of the first application period in May 2021.

The FIFA FFP agreement in collaboration with FIFPRO is a clear reflection of how FIFA interprets its role as world football’s governing body, underlining its commitment to helping and reaching out to those in need, especially within the football community, starting with the game’s principal figures: the players.

Please click here for FIFA’s report on the FIFA FFP.