Lassana Diarra seeks €65m from FIFA

Former French international midfielder Lassana Diarra has lodged a 65-million-euro (£56m) lawsuit against FIFA and the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) in a Belgian court, his lawyers announced, according to several news reports.

Diarra said that FIFA had failed to accept an indication of its “culture of disrespect”. Diarra made a major change to the game when he won an appeal at the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2024. He argued that FIFA regulations had restricted his freedom of mobility. The CJEU includes the European Court of Justice.

“I’ve been fighting this legal battle ever since August 2014. Diarra stated in an interview that she has been fighting this legal battle for more than 11-years. joint Media release “I do this for myself. If I’ve been able resist the FIFA steamroller because of my career, then I must have had a successful one. But I’ve also done it to help all the less-known and up-and-coming players who lack the financial or psychological resources to take on FIFA in front real judges. Finally, I am delighted that the ‘DIARRA ruling’ has paved the way for the ‘Justice for Players’ foundation to launch a class action in the Netherlands that will enable all players (not only those who, like me, have suffered specific damage) to obtain compensation for the harm caused by the FIFA regulations, without having to pay legal costs upfront and without having to reveal their identity (see www.justiceforplayers.com),” Diarra added.

Absence of a solution amicable

Diarra said, given the indifference of FIFA and RBFA to a negotiated solution, that the “next logical move is to return the case to the national court so they can implement CJEU’s ruling.” We are following this decision, which is based on the CJEU’s very clear ruling that settled all of the legal issues. He said He thinks the Belgian court will issue a verdict within 12 to 15 month.

FIFA made a rule change in December 2024. But the global union of players, FifPro (which is supporting Diarra’s new lawsuit) deemed this to be inadequate.

The union stated that Fifa refused to work constructively with the player in order to address his rightful claim to compensation for career losses.

Diarra’s story follows the announcement made two weeks ago that a class-action suit was being filed against FIFA. Lawyers estimate that the lifetime earnings of all players could have been reduced by as much 8 per cent during the time period when the rules were enforced.