Here is another headache for FIFA: the int'l football player union "wants to end the 125-year-old tradition of clubs paying to acquire talent," according to Alex Duff of BLOOMBERG. A person familiar with the plans said that FIFPro "is willing to fund hundreds of thousands of euros in legal fees" if a player agrees to challenge rules underpinning a $4B-a-year market that allow a club to demand a transfer fee for an under-contract player. The person also said that the union "has also started lobbying European Union officials to abolish the system, which it says gives athletes less freedom of movement than other workers."
FIFA "is unlikely to have an appetite for a time-consuming overhaul of transfers." University of Manchester law professor Geoff Pearson: "You could make a good case for ending the transfer market but football authorities don’t seem to be interested." Philippe Piat, president of Hoofddorp, Netherlands-based FIFPro, said in '13 that the transfer system -- which dates back to English football in 1890 to compensate clubs who lose players to richer rivals -- "fails 99 percent of players" (BLOOMBERG, 8/21).
